Story
Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for taking the time to visit our Just Giving Page.
We have set this page up in memory of our beautiful boy Blake who sadly lost his life to the most horrendous disease, Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis or HLH.
At five years old Blake was diagnosed with Leukaemia. His treatment started straight away, with six months of intensive chemotherapy and a planned further three years of maintenance chemotherapy. There were a few initial complications but Blake responded really well to the treatment went into remission really quickly however in September 2017, part way through his maintenance treatment, Blake started to get very ill until he was hospitalised at the beginning of November. His illness baffled the doctors and consultants, he was tested for everything they could think of but he became seriously ill and was transferred to intensive care and put on full life support. Here he was diagnosed with Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) which is a very rare and life threatening disease which is caused by an uncontrolled growth of white blood cells. It is likened to a very severe form of inflammation that the body cannot turn off. Blake’s immune system was overwhelmed by this excessive activation which caused Blake’s organs to fail. Blake did not respond to any of the treatment he was given, it was too big a fight. Our perfect boy, Blake, sadly passed away on 30 November 2017, seven years old, to this terrible disease. It is an understatement to say our world has been shattered and our hearts have been truly broken, words cannot express the pain and heartache we are going through.
To help us keep going and honour our beautiful boy we are starting to fund raise for Histio UK who are a registered charity dedicated to promoting and funding scientific research into uncovering the causes of all histiocytic diseases, which includes HLH, and also finding effective treatment and ultimately a cure. We want to help the charity to support patients and their families and also raise awareness, especially for HLH. This illness is so rare and so deadly we feel this charity needs our support to be able to help save the lives of other children who are so unlucky to be struck by HLH. This deadly disease needs to be stopped!
To raise money for Histio UK we plan to fundraise every year. This year a core group of Blake's family and friends are doing 'The Big Eight' as it would be Blake's eighth birthday. This means eight gruelling events between a core team of people. This will include:
1. March 2018 – A Cyclothon
2. April 2018 – A Swimathon
3. June 2018 – The Three Yorkshire Peaks
4. June 2018 – Total Warrior
5. July 2018 – Walk to Barnsley Hospital and then back
7. September 2018 – Individual Challenges
8. October 2018 – The Hedgehog Half Marathon
Everything will be promoted on Facebook and Twitter!
Please, please, please donate or buy a raffle ticket. These events are seriously pushing us out of our comfort zone, but it’s nothing compared to what Blake went through with such dignity and strength. We need to support this charity – no child should ever have to go through what Blake did. Support this charity, Support Blake, do it BecauseOfBlake.
THANK YOU!