This year, Candlelighters is celebrating our 50th anniversary year supporting children and families.
In 2006, Keith’s son, Harry, was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma at three years old. While in hospital with Harry, Keith began to cross paths with Candlelighters and find out about the support they offered. In 2020, Keith became the Chair of our Board of Trustees, passionately leading the charity alongside our trustees, and setting the charity’s strategies for providing the best support for families.
Keith shares their story…
“Harry was three in 2006 when he was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, which is an aggressive form of the disease. We’d gone on holiday because we’d been told he had chickenpox, and the day we arrived, we got a phone call saying, ‘You must get back now’. We were told he had two weeks to live, unless treatment started right away, and even then, there were no guarantees.”
“We were thrown into this world that you just don’t think exists. As a parent, you think you can always be there for your children, you can protect them and help them, but then you’re told there’s nothing you can do – you’ve got to sit back and let the medical teams do it. That is really hard, really hard.”
As Harry progressed through treatment, the family began to cross paths with Candlelighters, finding out about support available – whether it was a friendly cup of tea, the parents’ kitchen, or Elaine, our Dinner Supervisor.
“There was one morning, Harry had a really bad night and it was touch and go and I must have fallen asleep next to him. And somebody woke me up with the biggest mug of tea and just said ‘he’s okay.’ And that was Candlelighters. And then we started to get Elaine coming around with the tea trolley. And it was those sort of things, that you just thought, these are just little things, but they mean so much when everything else is going on around you.”
“Harry went through various treatments, and thankfully got to a stage where they said, ‘He’s going to be ok as far as we’re able to tell’ and that was a massive relief.”
Though their journey has continued, for Harry and the whole family, Harry is now 22 years old and following doctors’ instructions to ‘keep fit’. Having taken up Karate and won medals across various competitions both nationally and internationally, Harry is now studying at university and enjoys ultra-distance running.
Keith continued to become involved with Candlelighters and dedicate his time to improving care for other families facing childhood cancer, becoming a trustee, and helping to raise funds and awareness for Candlelighters.
“The journey means a lot to me personally. Going back to 2007, when I was asked if I’d be a trustee I thought, there’s nothing I can do. But I can do something by helping out Candlelighters. I rather foolishly signed up for the Great North Run that year, which taught me a lesson!”
In his time on the board, Keith has overseen huge developments to our support for families, including opening The Square, Pavilion, and Cottage, as well as new and more comprehensive emotional, practical and financial support.
“It’ll be 20 years next year since I got involved. And if I sit back now and think, ‘Did I ever think we’d get to this position?’ No, I didn’t. And when I think now to what we have, the Family Support Workers, The Square, I mean, that’s just amazing. I mean, to even think that could exist.”
“But one thing I can tell you is, it’s not enough. The stress and pressure families face is just immense. And until you’re in that position, you never truly ‘get it’.”
Keith’s experiences and passion have driven him as both a trustee, and now Chair of our Board of Trustees, and as Candlelighters has for the past five decades, we will continue to drive change to improve cancer care and support for families, led by our trustees.
“For me as Chairman, I feel very privileged to be in this position to be taking the charity into the 50th year. We don’t give ourselves a ceiling, do we? We’re always like, ‘right, what can we do next?’”
“It’s such a privilege to be involved.”
