This Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, we share the words of a mother, Laura Safhill-Jones:
This summer holidays our inspirational 9-year-old daughter, Willow, took on the challenge to swim 20 miles to celebrate 20 years of The Joshua Tree, in memory of her brother and best friend, George.
We are immensely proud of her determination to achieve it. She was in the water almost daily for 4 weeks of her summer holidays – how she doesn’t have webbed feet or gills yet is beyond us!
We have been blown away by the support she has received, from the friends that helped her reach the finish line, to the heartfelt stories people have shared and sponsors received in the changing rooms. It has all helped to raise an amazing £1,430.25.
Willow chose to raise money for The Joshua Tree as they have been such a supportive lifeline to our family over the last 2 years.
George absolutely idolised his big sister, ‘Biba.’ Although he took immense pleasure in winding her up, they were the absolute best of friends, and he would be so incredibly proud of her. 
George was a strong, active, and energetic 3-year-old boy, with a mischievous smile as big as his heart. He never ceased to amaze us with his can-do attitude, tackling everything with such enthusiasm and rarely thinking of what could go wrong, an approach to life that certainly kept us on the edge of our seats!
He loved machinery, tractors, diggers, and ball games – never passing on an opportunity to perfect his rugby tackles. George also enjoyed ‘fixing’ things around the house with his tool kits and Hulk strength, the marks of these ‘repairs’ are ingrained in the furniture forever.
With his loyal Ron dog by his side, George loved being outside, often found digging up the plants, stealing the ripe fruits from the greenhouse, feeding his beloved chickens or enjoying a pony ride, although he always had his sights set on the biggest horse in the field!
After a day in school, George came home with a large bruise on his thigh. We initially thought he must have had a fall, but also that it was odd the school had not mentioned any accidents that could have caused a bruise of that size. By chance, George was booked in to the doctors the following morning to have his preschool vaccinations, so I decided to mention it whilst we were there, by which point, more bruises had started to appear. After a quick GP referral to our local hospital, we were on our way to Alder Hey that night, where they confirmed George had Accute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). It was such a shock to hear that our perfectly healthy son, who had just literally been running around the waiting room, had cancer.
I don’t like to use the term journey, as to me a journey is something that takes you to your desired destination. No parent would wish to be here. Only 5 short weeks after diagnosis, we lost out beautiful boy.
I do not think you can ever grasp the impact a childhood cancer diagnosis has on a family until you have lived it. One question people often asked me was, ‘When is your next appointment?’ my answer to this always felt so unreflective of the truth. Cancer isn’t scheduled, it doesn’t just pop up as a reminder on your calendar. It’s all the turmoil of medicines, home visits, worry, temperature checks, blood transfusions, precious moments together, tears, hospital stays, overwhelming unscheduled changes and spending more time with the amazing oncology teams than your own family, which happen between now and your ‘next appointment.’
We were referred to The Joshua Tree shortly after George’s diagnosis, sadly George never got to meet the team, but I know he would have been in his element with them.
When you lose a child, many everyday tasks become unbearable, it crushed me having to select one less ticket for a day out. Such a simple task, but enough to make you cancel your plans, despite the guilt you feel for not going. So, to have The Joshua Tree team organise events and just tell us where to be, made it possible for us to go, having not had the stress of booking and feel that bit more able to enjoy the childhood fun Willow should still have.
Willow always felt braver with George by her side, his enthusiasm would encourage her to take part, we used to say he was the stuntman to her H&S assessment.
Losing George hit her hard, not only had she lost her brother, but her best friend and sidekick. Whilst she was unbelievably brave and dealt with all the fast-paced changes that came, she understandably feels quite anxious and scared. With the help of The Joshua Tree team and the support on offer, they have helped her regain some confidence and see its ok to still have fun.
For us as parents, being with people that understand and don’t shy away the moment your eyes fill up has helped our new normal, feel much less isolating.
We’re proud as a charity to be there for families like Laura’s. Thank you to Laura for sharing about the impact childhood cancer has had, helping us raise awareness during childhood cancer awareness month.
