Our Impact

Real stories of special moments, family memories and the difference Dragonfly makes.

A Perfect Distraction, A Chance to Make Memories

A special break away can mean so much to a family going through an incredibly difficult time. For one Dragonfly family, their trip to Center Parcs provided the chance to step away from everything for a while and simply enjoy being together.

“Thanks so much for arranging our trip to Centre Parcs. We had a wonderful time. Vivi loved it so much. A perfect distraction and a wonderful way to make memories.”

A Magical Week Full of Memories

From wildlife visits and thunderstorms to creating a very special keepsake, this family made memories that they will treasure.

“Centre parcs was such an amazing holiday thank you. We are so lucky.

The cabin was in a really good spot, pretty accessible and close to activities. The staff were really nice and helpful. We packed so much into the week and was knackered haha, but in the best way. Our cabin was surrounded by nature, it was so beautiful. We had a deer family that kept coming to visit us and they had a baby! Magical. There were also some hedgehogs.

At one point there was a thunderstorm while we were playing crazy golf so had to stop but we were allowed to play again another day for free which was really nice of them.

I was able to cast my hands, which is usually a child activity but once I explained why I wanted to do them, they adapted it for me and ended up gifting it to me. Amazing experience, I’m so grateful”

A Special Break, A Chance to Be a Family

Dragonfly Cancer Trust helped Erinne and her family enjoy a special break away together, giving them the opportunity to step away from everyday challenges and simply enjoy precious family time.

Erinne had lots of fun during their break and particularly loved going swimming every day and riding her bike everywhere!

Her family told us:

“Thank you once again to all of you at Dragonfly Cancer Trust for giving us a special break away. It was fantastic for us to get away as a family and make some special memories together. Erinne had lots of fun and loved going swimming everyday and riding her bike everywhere!”

A Precious Break for Liam and His Family

A chance to escape the appointments, treatment and uncertainty, and simply make memories together.

When Liam, aged 21, was diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour, his family’s world was turned upside down. In amongst the operation, appointments, diagnosis and treatment, there was very little opportunity to simply be together as a family.

Through Dragonfly Cancer Trust, Liam was given the opportunity to enjoy a special break at Center Parcs with his dad and four brothers.

For Liam and his family, the trip provided something they desperately needed — time away from everything else to relax, spend time together and create unforgettable memories.

Liam’s mum, Maria, told us how much those memories meant to her:

“They made some unforgettable memories and I got some wonderful pictures and to see the relaxed smile on Liam’s face in those pictures is something I can carry round with me forever.”

While Liam and his brothers enjoyed their break, Maria was able to take some time for herself too, knowing that they were together and enjoying a much-needed escape.

“For Dragonfly Cancer Trust to enable the boys to have that time together is so very special.”

For Liam and his family, Dragonfly created the opportunity to step away from the difficult reality they were facing and simply enjoy being together. Those moments became memories that Maria says she will carry with her forever.

This is why Every Moment Matters.

A Precious Memory of Cameron

After losing her brother Cameron to leukaemia, his sister discovered Dragonfly Cancer Trust during his final days. Dragonfly was able to give their family a lasting memory of Cameron, something they could carry with them wherever they go.

“In late 2018, Cameron (Cam) my little brother was diagnosed with leukaemia. It was completely shocking and scary. For many months Cameron endured several rounds of chemotherapy. Until finally in February 2019, we were told Cam was cancer free. We were able to breathe again *cautiously*.

Cam went back to being a typical 18 year old. Little did we know that in the two years following, Cam would go on to face two more relapses of his leukaemia. His most recent stay in hospital happened during lockdown. Cam went into hospital with the hope of treating his relapse post stem cell transplant. Due to restrictions only I could stay with Cam.

For seven weeks me and Cam stayed in one room, and could only see our mum from the window when she came to drop off snacks and laundry. It was extremely difficult for all of us. Cameron’s health began to deteriorate as he developed serious complications. The doctors had run out of options to treatment Cameron. It was truly heartbreaking… Cameron was moved to our local hospital so he could be comfortable in familiar surroundings. It was in these precious last few days of Cameron’s life we learnt about Dragonfly Cancer Trust.

Josh’s Holiday

Josh and his family enjoyed a holiday at Center Parcs where they were able to escape from everything and spend quality time together. During lockdown, we were also able to provide some lovely things to help keep him entertained at home.

“My beautiful little boy was diagnosed with terminal cancer over a year and a half ago… he passed away early last month.
Things are very tough as a single mum and I was just trying to make Josh’s life as fulfilled and happy as I could.
Dragonfly Cancer Trust helped us so much, we did so many lovely things and had an amazing holiday with Josh. I just want to say thank you so much. xx”
Kerry (Josh’s mum)

Chelsea’s Six Nations Weekend

Chelsea loves rugby and has always watched the 6 Nations on TV with her mum since she was little. Thanks to our wonderful contacts, we had plans in place for Chelsea to meet the England Rugby team. But due to matches being postponed and training days being changed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, unfortunately this was unable to go ahead. To make up for it, we were able to arrange last minute tickets for Chelsea and her mum to attend the England v Wales game at Twickenham, as well as some other (secret) surprises.

We were over the moon Chelsea was well enough to attend the game, especially as the other fixtures were postponed and the UK put on lockdown the following week.

“OMG!!

I can’t say how thankful I am. You truly did work your magic by getting me the best seats possible, (front row!) as well as spending money. Thank you so much, this has all been a dream and more.

The work you guys do is amazing and without people like you, people like me wouldn’t be able to receive their wishes.

Thank you.

Chelsea x”

Kira’s Sweet Sixteenth

Kira used her Cash Gift to hold some very special 16th birthday celebrations, one out at a restaurant with all of her family and the other at home with her friends. Thank you to Kira and her mum for sharing such beautiful photographs and memories with you all…

“Massive thanks for your generous gift to help us create special memories for Kira’s 16th birthday.

These photos are of the amazing family meal we had to celebrate… It was lovely to have food cooked for us all whilst not having the pressure of hosting the event in our house… Family time is very special to us.

Having lived with Neuroblastoma for five years, Kira has missed so much time spent with family and friends – that is why the creation of both these celebratory evenings was so important to Kira. Thank you for helping us to make them happen x

These are from the additional teenage party Kira had to celebrate her 16th with her friends.

It was a happy evening filled with lots of fun, laughter and again more precious memories created.

Thank you for gifting us the financial means to make all of this happen and to give Kira a huge smile from ear to ear.

Thank you Dragonfly Cancer Trust -your gift means so much.

Very Best Wishes,

Aud Ronnie Kyle & Kira ”

Alex’s Trip to Dublin

When cancer put Alex’s plans for a trip to Canada on hold, a Cash Gift from Dragonfly helped make a new adventure possible, giving him the chance to escape reality, explore Dublin and create unforgettable memories with his friend.

Hello,

I would just like to show my appreciation sincerely for this wonderful organisation which helped towards a dreamy vision become reality. Hopefully sharing my little story can be used positively and show the vitality of this whole process.

So from September 2018 I had a relapse and my lovely cancer came back, which was ideal timing as a week before this I went to Leeds with my Dad to get my passport at the ripe age of 23.

My main motivation was to fly to Canada to visit a friend and her family and had even the funds saved aside waiting upon this ‘Disney’ moment to become accessible. Also within it being short of 2 years since I originally left my hospitals it felt like an monumental stride in a positive direction and things for me were being put it place.

From me being such a ‘David Brent’ admirer the thought of being bed bound to Canadian bound was over thrilling. Of course the banter of life wouldn’t allow that and the week after receiving my passport through the post my cancer came back and it was left collecting dust on my bedroom shelf for months.

Everything, as you can imagine, was a tad hectic and being able to use my passport was naturally on the back burner… Until recently!

I had a visitation from one of my support workers Harriet Wainwright ( MASSIVE BIG UP ) who’s always been very supportive and caring. She mentioned Dragonfly Cancer Trust and the whole concept of how you could have a trip anywhere. At first this troubled my bubble wrapped mind and straight away I dismissed it as even the simple pleasure of laying on the settee can make the tumours in my spine come out to play and cause discomfort.

Fortunately my Mamma raised a stubborn boy and the whole concept was too over whelming to miss.

I changed my mind in a rebellious nature as my mind seems to be quite spontaneous and I had just finished the series Vikings so it encouraged me.

Me and a old pal of mine (Göktürk) always mentioned the idea of a trip in Dublin so it all really fell in to place.

A Cash Gift from Dragonfly Cancer Trust made our dream become evident and just a week later we were on a last minute flight to Dublin!

We boarded the plane and I smacked my forehead straight away on the luggage storage above my head. – HA take that brain tumours.

I could smell the purity of the Guinness and had to personally connoisseur the matter.

We flew in late on the Sunday so we were in our hotel by 1am Monday to enjoy the few days until we flew back on the Thursday.

This is me in front of the most iconic pub in Dublin, which is situated in a busy riverside neighbourhood called the temple bar.

As my mother was a massive fan of the Eurovision song contest, not just in her memory, but every year I love to watch it and get really excited for the months leading up to it.

Last year Ireland’s entry was my favourite and the video of the song started from outside the temple bar.

(You can see the music video here)

Singing this to the locals may not have seemed appropriate as I learnt the Irish don’t watch this competition either.

We also tried traditional Irish stew – I found talking to the local lovely people from Dublin was the ideal way to find out where these prolific places were located.

The whole experience was enlightening at a time where I just feel ‘logged out’ mentally…

To me this trip whole trip was a simply phenomenal and a key glorious way to dismiss reality… and the fact Ireland should have really won the Eurovision song contest last year!

I would strongly recommend anyone to support Dragonfly Cancer Trust and I really hope this charity will carry on growing. I know it was vital for me and this was why I wanted to personally thank this organisation by giving a little feedback that will hopefully support what this charity represents.

My friend, Gokturk, would also like to add “Thank you you to the members of Dragonfly Cancer Trust for bringing joy and happiness to many people’s lives including ours”.

Anyway, the main thing was just to show my appreciation and how much of a difference you guys can make!

On a serious note, I would love to show this charity as much support as possible , it gives me great satisfaction that there’s people like you guys in a world of humans that make alcohol a vital necessary procedure to find them vaguely interesting.

Alex

Isabella’s Book

In 2010 aged three years old, Isabella was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a rare childhood cancer. At the age of nine, during treatment for her third relapse, Isabella decided that she would like to write a children’s book during her long stays in hospital.

Isabella worked incredibly hard on her book, immersing herself into the fantasy world she had created from her hospital bed. Once completed, the book, titled “The Secret Adventure of the Fantasy Friends” made its way to the Josie’s Dragonfly Trust office and we absolutely loved it.

As a surprise for Isabella, we were asked to publish the book and the Dragonfly Dream Team were on the case straight away, contacting publishers who may be able to help us.

We sent Isabella’s manuscript to Legend Press, an independent publishers based in London, who came back almost immediately saying how much they loved the story. Their team went above and beyond to bring her book to life with a fantastic front cover design, “About the Author” page and professional finish.

A box of copies was sent out to Isabella’s mum who was able to surprise her with her published creation. She said:

“Isabella’s books have arrived and I can’t begin to tell you just how excited she was to receive them. Not one copy but 100 copies, she was just gobsmacked, as we all were. The book looks absolutely amazing, Isabella just loves it, and absolutely loves the front cover.She has already said she will sign every copy she gives away now as she is famous… you are all so absolutely wonderful for organising all of this for Isabella. I never in my wildest dreams thought when she was writing the story during her long hospital stays that one day we would be able to get it into print, and you wonderful people have made that possible.

You have made a sick little girl very very happy.”

We would like to say a huge thank you to the team at Legend Press for the time and effort they dedicated to creating Isabella’s published book…. and to our new favourite author, Isabella Lyttle, for brightening our day with a fantastic story – we will treasure our copy always

Ben’s Lamborghini Experience

We often receive lovely thank you letters in the office, all of which are extremely precious. We remember quite clearly a wonderful card we received after supporting a wish for a young man. The card has always remained in pride of place as we were bowled over by the fact that even though he must have been feeling pretty unwell, he had taken the time and trouble to send such a lovely thank you. It is the little things in life that mean so much and we are so privileged to be able to share Ben’s story with you…

“My beautiful Ben was first diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2007, aged 7. Following surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy he did incredibly well until 2012 when he sadly relapsed…

I wanted to make his birthday incredibly special as I knew it could be his last.

He loved Lamborghini’s and I thought how amazing it would be for him to drive one, but how could I make this happen? I started making enquiries, but the wonderful Josie’s Dragonfly Trust stepped in and made his 14th birthday the most magical ever.

We spent the morning at a local Lamborghini showroom where he got to sit in all of the cars, was given lots of Lamborghini goodies and was taken out for a spin in one of the cars.
Additionally, Josie’s Dragonfly Trust organised for Ben to go to a track and drive one. He’d already had a few driving lessons and driving was something so important to him; he talked about passing his test before his best friend and getting a car. We knew this might never happen, so this surprise was super special.

On the evening of Ben’s 14th birthday, we also went out with the family for an Italian meal, Ben’s favourite, again Josie’s Dragonfly Trust organised and made this happen. Such special, precious memories.

The treatment stopped working and Ben went on a clinical trial that failed. Josie’s Dragonfly Trust always kept in touch and asked if there was anything special they could do for him. He was a big Lego fan and since his relapse had started making his own Lego movies. When the new Lego movie was announced he couldn’t wait to go and see it, counting down the days. Unfortunately he deteriorated very quickly and a couple of days before its release, he became bed bound.

Kindly Josie’s Dragonfly Trust sent him some Lego to cheer him up. He died two weeks later, a month before his 15th birthday.

Thank you for the memories… priceless x “

-Written by Sharon, Ben’s mum

Rea’s Garden

After losing our precious daughter Rea, I found myself just sitting in her room.

We brought home her ashes which I placed on her bed along with the ashes of her beloved Mastiff, Blaze, so they could be together.

Looking out of her bedroom window on a gloomy winters day looking at a decking area in the corner of our garden used for storage, it just clicked……that could be a special place to sit and remember her.

“Our little piece of heaven on earth”

Rea was too unwell to take advantage of a wish when she was still here but I heard about Josie’s Dragonfly Trust and their new “Footprint Fund” which helps families to do something special in memory of their child.

Josie’s Dragonfly Trust funded the centre piece of Rea’s garden – Rea loved all animals (her favourite being the white tiger) so I wanted her garden to encompass this. We chose a beautiful water feature of an otter’s playground because otters are extremely happy and playful creatures, just like Rea – always smiling and having fun… I know given the choice she would have picked it too.

It has given us so much comfort we have extended the area to accommodate all the things that family and friends have kindly brought to put in the garden to remember Rea by.

The morning after Rea’s garden was finished we woke to find a white feather right in the middle of the grass.

I know she’s with us when we sit there.

– Written by Lesley, Rea’s mum.

Mark’s Day at the Zoo

When we come into Dragonfly HQ on a Monday morning it’s hard to predict where the week will take us. On this particular Monday we received a request from the family of a young boy who has spent most of the year very unwell. The little boy, Mark, is a huge animal lover and his family approached Josie’s Dragonfly Trust to arrange a special day for them at Colchester Zoo.

Our Dragonfly Dream Team were on the case straight away and with help from the lovely staff at Colchester Zoo, they had everything in place for the family to visit the following week.

Both Mark and his younger brother were VIPs for the day and gained backstage access to the animal enclosures along with an expert zoo keeper as their chaperone. Their day began by giving the giraffes their breakfast, before getting up close and personal with the meerkats and aardvarks in their enclosures. The boys were then given backstage access to see the big cat enclosure and meet the tigers in a keeper area not usually open to the public.

Mark’s mum, Samantha said

“We had lots of fun and the experience of going to the zoo with a keeper is completely different and all the animals chase them as they think they’re going to be fed. The tigers were so calm they just looked like big house cats but you could hear her crunching the bones of the chicken!

Thank you so much… I am just so happy that we get to do all the magic experiences that we have and we couldn’t of done them without help from charities like Josie’s Dragonfly Trust.”

We would like to thank Samantha and her lovely family for allowing us to share photographs of their special day, we hope it was a truly memorable one.

Dragonfly Dreams are funded through your donations, and we need your support to be able to continue granting requests just like this one.

Ben’s Tractor

Ben was 12 years old and had just settled down in secondary school when one Friday evening in October 2012 he had just got back from school and he told us he had found a lump on his neck.

We took him to the doctors and they went through the usual things like antibiotics and viral illnesses but weeks went on and still no change.

They sent him for various scans and that’s when they diagnosed him almost two months after finding this lump with a cancer of the soft tissue called rhydomyosarcoma. He was in no pain or discomfort at this time, they did a biopsy and inserted a Hickman line ready for treatment to beat this nasty disease.

The treatment started on the 31st December 2012 where he went to have his first block of chemotherapy, but the tumour had grown since the placing of the Hickman line and caused the line to kink which would not allow anything through it. He was in theatre the next day, 1st January 2013, where another line was placed on the other side and the old line removed. He started his first block soon after getting back on the ward that same day.

After 2 block treatments in the February they said it was inoperable due to its location and said radiotherapy was also needed. But because of the area it was in they spoke about proton beam therapy instead of the conventional radiotherapy. This wasn’t available in this country so he was forwarded to the panel who decided the funding was there for him to travel abroad to receive the treatment.

The next few weeks went by and we were told to make plans to travel to Jacksonville in Florida.
We flew out in March and spent 10 weeks where Ben received 30 sessions of proton beam therapy and also chemotherapy.

On our return the tumour had started to shrink dramatically and was barely noticeable. Ben continued with chemotherapy until December 2013.

We were advised while this tumour was at its smallest it would be in his best interest to try to remove it.
So Ben was in theatre for 7 hours in March 2014. The tumour was removed but with no clear margins so they were not confident that had removed it all. So as a safety precaution they gave him another 6 blocks of chemotherapy.

However, the tumour started to grow back almost immediately after surgery with the chemotherapy having no affect. It was at this point that Ben’s Clic Sargent social worker spoke about making a wish.
She said “make it a good one as it’s a wish”.

So after some careful thought and discussions Ben wished to have his own tractor, which along with f1stock car racing and farming, these were his love of life.

Dragonfly Trust came forward with a donation to help Ben with his tractor and us as a family gave the rest to get him a tractor he wanted.

It was an oldish tractor but he loved it and it got him out and about when he was feeling up to it.

They gave him 2 more weeks of conventional radiotherapy to try to slow the growth. It now came to light that Ben had fallen into the 10% bracket of being chemo resistant and the only thing that had slowed the tumour down was the proton beam therapy he received in the USA.

He was then to try various clinical trials as options were becoming scarce.
They had no affect and from then on his weight started to drop off him and eating was a problem.
He had a stomach peg put in to try to give the nutrition he needed.

And after more clinical trials the words that will always haunt us for ever were said…”there is no more treatment available for Ben.”

He was put on palliative care and 4 weeks from then Ben sadly grew his wings on the 3rd May 2015 at home peacefully.

-Written by Howard Turner, Ben’s dad.