When your child is diagnosed with cancer life as you know it ceases to exist. Day to day concerns have to be shelved and your sole focus is the light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel. When Joel, who had just turned 19, was first diagnosed with gastric cancer in 2009 our lives were completely taken over by weekly chemotherapy, hospital appointments and doctors’ visits, so much so that spen
ding quality time together as a family became impossible. You become hopeless and helpless and have to put all your faith and trust in the people looking after your child to do the right thing and get them better. For any parent this is so hard; you know your child better than anyone and you have always been the one who is there when they need you most. All we could do as parents was be there to love and support our son, nothing else mattered. Because of the lack of NHS services and funding in rural counties Joel had to be treated in four separate hospitals covering three counties during his illness. The costs of lengthy travel, parking and overnight accommodation when no income was coming in added to an already stressful situation and without the generosity of our family and friends we couldn’t have been with Joel when he needed us most. For many months after Joel’s death I wished that things could have been easier and resented the fact that what little time we had together had been spent worrying about the financial implications of cancer. We were saddened by the lack of support available from charities and government agencies to young adults in Joel’s situation. If he had been just a few months younger we would have had numerous options open to us; this is really why Joel’s Wish came about. Many young adults in the UK today are at college or University and still supported by their parents. They haven’t had the opportunity to amass savings of their own and their parents have often spent what savings they had on their children’s education or training, leaving very little in the kitty for unexpected expenditure. Joel’s Wish recognise the importance of having support from family and friends during illness and its benefits to mental and physical health, we also recognise that for those left behind it is happy memories and the knowledge that you made the most of every minute while you could that gets you through on dark days. To this end Joel’s Wish exists to support young adults with a life-limiting cancer diagnosis and their families by providing financial relief to cover travel and accommodation costs during treatment and care, weekend breaks, and assistance with communication costs such as laptops or mobile phone expenses to keep families together. Joel's Wish is an official supporter for Severn Hospice and will continue to support them through fundraising.
