A HAMPSHIRE woman spoke of her experience of caring for her seriously ill son at a celebrity-filled event to help raise funds for charity.
Louise Davey, from Locks Heath, spoke in front of over 350 guests at the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity 35th Anniversary Ball at London’s Dorchester Hotel on Thursday, March 24.
Among the guests listening to Louise were celebrities including host Alexander Armstrong and Great British Bake Off’s 2018 semi-finalist and presenter Briony Williams.
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She said: "Rainbow Trust has been supporting us since the beginning.
"The Trust is an utterly wonderful charity, and we definitely couldn’t manage without it."
Louise spoke about the support her family has received from the charity since their son Teddy was first diagnosed with cancer in September last year.
Two weeks after visiting the GP, the family was told Teddy had a rare form of cancer called Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH).
He started immediate chemotherapy and high dose steroids while Louise was caring for her four-month-old baby, Oliver, and her husband Robert was at work.
The nurses at Portsmouth Hospital referred the family to Rainbow Trust and Family Support Worker, Georgia Cooper, started supporting them.
Louise was keen to share her experiences of caring for Teddy and Rainbow Trust’s support to encourage guests at the Anniversary Ball to donate to the charity.
She said: "I feel so honoured to have been Rainbow Trust’s special guest speaker.
"If I can help the trust raise money to secure funding for more Family Support Workers to help families with a seriously ill child for many years to come, then I feel very happy and proud of myself.”
The event raised over £500k which is enough for the charity to support 292 families.
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