52 Lives

Life #111

Request: Gift cards for food, clothing and toys

This week, we want to help a young girl who has just been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.

Tegan is a happy, energetic little girl, and a keen gymnast. She has two brothers and lives with her mum and her mum’s partner in Surrey.

On August 3rd, her life was turned upside down. She was diagnosed with a Wilms tumour - a type of cancer in the kidney which usually affects children. The cancer is stage 4, and has also spread to one of her lungs.

So, over the past month, instead of heading off on the summer holiday they had planned, Tegan has been in hospital having intensive treatment - she is about to start her fifth round of chemotherapy and is due to have her kidney removed in October. It is likely she will then have further chemotherapy for 6 months and possibly radiotherapy.

Tegan is having to face so much for someone so young. Just weeks ago she had the carefree life of a 9 year old, and now her days are suddenly filled with gruelling treatments and major surgery.

Tegan’s illness has taken its toll on the whole family. Tegan’s mum has left work to care for her, and she is trying so hard to make sure Tegan’s brothers are still getting her attention, while she is in and out of hospital with Tegan. She said they have been amazing, and haven’t complained once, but she still feels she hasn’t been there for them enough.

They all have so much to deal with, and we want to help make life a little bit easier for them during this very difficult time.

What We Need

1. Gift cards for groceries - to help cover some of their food expenses

2. Gift cards for Amazon - the children are having birthdays soon, and with Christmas coming up as well, we wanted to help cover the costs of all the gifts Tegan’s mum might need to buy

3. Gift cards for Next - Tegan has lost a lot of weight and needs new clothes. We want to cover the cost of this as well

What We Did

We sent Tegan more than £500 in gift cards, along with so many beautiful messages of support. Her mum said she was absolutely overwhelmed with the kindness and support you have all shown her.

Thankyou so much to everyone who sent gifts, gift cards and messages.

We also shared Tegan’s story with the students at Barley Croft Primary School as part of our School Kindness Project, which aims to empower children to make a difference in someone's life. They showed so much concern for Tegan and wanted to do something kind. So they made dozens of get well cards, wrote stories for her and drew pictures. 

"Thank you so much to everyone that sent gift cards for Tegan and her brothers, people are amazing and it's definitely going to help towards Christmas, and thank you Jaime, the work you do is amazing. Tegan absolutely loved getting all the messages, and I was just overwhelmed by it. I'm glad I chose to watch it beforehand without Tegan as I cried, what beautiful kind children they all are! I can't thank you all enough, forever in my heart xxx"

Tegan's mum