Essex Castle 50 Mile Bike Ride Saturday 26th July for my son Freddie

Our beautiful son Freddie was diagnosed with a rare kidney tumour which turned out to be a cancer called Rhabdomyosarcoma in March 2012. Our world fell apart and became one of hospital stays, chemotherapy, radiotherapy and we were unsure what the future was for our precious boy.

Throughout all of this, Freddie was incredibly happy and took everything in his stride.  He faced everything with bravery and defiance – he fought as hard as he could and was in remission for a time following surgery.  We tried to do normal things with him outside of hospital stays – he loved the zoo and going to the beach.  Most of all he loved playing with his sister Poppy and home was his favourite place to be.  The majority of photos we have show him with a big smile on his face.  We are so proud of how strong he was. He was and is an inspiration to us.

In November 2012 he became very poorly with infections and spent 13 weeks, including Christmas, in Great Ormond Street Hospital.  We had finished chemotherapy and thought we could return to a normal life with minimal chemo once he recovered from the infections. However, just before we finally returned home in January, a scan and biopsy revealed the cancer had returned in Freddie’s lung and no more treatment could be found to save our son.

It is and was truly devastating to be told that there was nothing more we could do to fight this horrible, aggressive, evil cancer and our beautiful son died peacefully on Saturday 13 April, aged 22 months.  We miss him more than words could ever describe

We have now found a research project at Newcastle University (Northern Insitute for Cancer Research) and have made contacts with some very dedicated people who are focussed on finding a cure for the type of cancer Freddie had.  It is heart breaking to say that some of the rarer cancers are grossly underfunded so Freddie’s family and Friends want to do everything possible to raise money and support this project. Brick by brick a cure can be found.

Since Freddie was diagnosed in March 2012, many of our friends and family have continued to raise money for the Newcastle project. We have also raised money for charities who supported us such as the wonderful Great Ormond Street Hospital and Clic Sargent. An estimated £15000 has been raised in Freddie's name.

To continue this, I have signed up for the Essex Castle 50 mile Bike Ride 50 on Saturday 26th July.  The ride is organised by Age UK so I will also be making a donation to that charity too.

I really appreciate all donations - thank you

Iain