Christian Lewis Trust Children's Cancer Charity

In January 2006 our 3 year old daughter the youngest of our 4 children was diagnosed with a pylocystic astrocytoma on the brain stem.

She was immediately admitted to hospital and spent the next eight weeks there with one or both of us with her. It was a very frightening and confusing time for the whole family especially our other children then aged 6, 5 and 4.

When Boudicca returned home she had a tracheostomy which needed constant attention both day and night and was fed via a tube. Four months after her operation her trache was removed and we were able to relax a little and the about a trip abroad. Friends did an amazing job raising money to send the whole family to Disneyland.

The Christian Lewis Trust provided the family with tickets to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Sea World and Islands of Adventure as well as a day trip to Green Meadows petting farm.

Our time away together as a family was amazing after such a traumatic time it enabled us as parents to spend some stress free time with not only Boudicca but the other 3 children who had for several months been pushed into the background whiles we tended to Boudicca.

We had the most fantastic holiday with the most incredible memories for all of us, it underlined for us the importance of being together. Everyone looked so healthy and felt so relaxed and Boudicca blossomed and hasn’t looked back.

Three years on, Boudicca is doing amazingly well, and surprise’s everyone with how fantastically she copes. She talks often about her trip to America as do the other children and between them spend many hours looking at photos and re-living the experiences they shared.

At the time we thought it might be our last holiday together as a family thankfully this was not the case. We have been incredibly lucky and Boudicca and her siblings have remained an inspiration to us all. We are sure the time spent away together helped her in her recovery and would like to thank the Christian Lewis Trust for giving us the opportunity as a family to go places that we would not have been able to afford and giving us the opportunity to spend time together without worrying about money.

Yours truly,
Sally, Geoff, Tatiana, Jago, Tallulah and Boudicca Hooper