Rich and Jess' fundraising event for Teddy20
Some of you may be aware that one of our Directors, Richard Cook, has been away from TMS since August last year due to his two year old daughter having been diagnosed with a brain tumour. In light of this, Richard and Jess (his sister and fellow Director) are doing some fundraising for an amazing cause. Both Richard and Jess are taking part in a sponsored haircut and beard shave! Richard will be shaving his hair and beard and Jess will be cutting off around 40 cms of her lovely long hair.
Below is a personal message from Richard:
“On the 26th August 2024 our family’s lives changed forever. While my wife and I were enjoying a weekend away in Prague, our daughter who was staying with my parents, stopped eating and drinking and was taken to A&E. We flew back home and went straight to meet them at A&E.
At this point we had previously seen numerous GP’s with symptoms such as wobbliness, a head tilt and sickness. This was all put down to being a toddler and having a viral infection. But I think deep down we knew it was something else.
When we got to A&E my wife spoke to the doctor at length about her symptoms and they decided that the best course of action was to have a CT scan. That CT scan showed that our daughter, who was approaching her second birthday, had a brain tumour which needed urgent treatment. We were then blue lighted to Birmingham Children’s Hospital, which is where we stayed for the next six weeks.
In the following days and weeks our daughter needed three brain surgeries, one of which was to remove the tumour. The surgery lasted for over 10 hours.
A week or so after the removal of the tumour we found out it was cancerous and that we would need a specialist type of radiation called Proton Beam Therapy, followed by a course of chemotherapy. Currently the NHS can only carry out Proton Beam Therapy in two places in the UK, so we were sent to Manchester for a six and a half week course of treatment. This meant moving our lives to Manchester and attending the Proton Beam Centre at The Christie Hospital, five times a week, where our daughter would have general anaesthetic each day.
In January of this year Pippa started chemotherapy treatment back at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. We are approaching the end of her treatment and routine scans so far have shown no signs that the tumour has returned, which we are all beyond happy about”.
Before I start talking about fundraising I would just encourage you to make yourself aware of the symptoms of brain tumours, which in children can often be misdiagnosed. The symptoms are different for adults and children and The Brain Tumour charity have a wealth of information on their website which I would encourage anyone to read.
As a result of the chemotherapy treatment Pippa lost her hair, so Richard and Jess felt it was only fair that they join forces with her. If you would like to donate to this amazing and worthwhile cause, you can do so by clicking the button below. Richard’s ‘JustGiving’ page provides some more information about the charity and their fund raising target. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Your support and kindness is greatly appreciated (plus you will be able to see Richard without hair or a beard, something which his colleagues are looking forward too!!)