The Northern Children of Courage Awards have celebrated the achievements of children and young people who have overcome barriers, achieved something extraordinary or helped and supported others.
Organised and supported for the second year by The St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation, the Awards were split over two age categories (under 12 and 13-17 years old), and presented in six categories: Outstanding Bravery,Fundraising Award,Special Recognition, Young Carer of the Year Award, Sporting Achievement and Care Team Award – to an adult team for care and support above and beyond expectations.
From Northumberland, awards were presented to Rosie Yates (11) from Morpeth and Grace Taylor (15) from Cramlington
Last year, Rosie started having seizures, which were diagnosed as epilepsy. Unfortunately, the epileptic fits were so severe that doctors couldn’t stop or prevent them for happening. Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London diagnosed a very rare form of epilepsy and inflammation of the brain. She now has brain damage, and is very unstable on her feet and relies on a wheelchair for any distances. Despite all this, Rosie attends the Calmer Therapy Centre in Guidepost where she is helpful with the other children who all love and admire her courage, bravery and determination.
Grace Taylor (15) from Cramlington has been a brilliant advocate for Teenage Cancer Trust since her diagnosis of Osteosarcoma in April 2017.
Grace has gone through a lot of treatment including 30 weeks of chemotherapy and an operation to remove her Femur and Knee in her right leg and 20 weeks of immune therapy.
She has always been positive and is actively involved in Teenage Cancer Trust events including monthly peer support groups in which she has shown support to other young people also recovering from cancer treatment. Grace attended last years Teenage Cancer Trust Find Your Sense of Tumour, in which again she showed commitment in getting involved in everything such as the climbing wall and zip wire outdoor activities as well as performing in the Saturday evening showcase. She maintained a positive attitude throughout and was a great role model to the other young people who she was with.
In November 2018 Grace and two other teenagers took part in a Q&A for the ‘Teachers Day’ at the RVI; an event for teachers who have been affected by a young person in their school with cancer. Grace spoke confidently in front of approximately 80 teachers, offering her story, advice and guidance on what schools are good at and what they can improve on for young people going back after cancer treatment. She has actively fundraised for Teenage Cancer Trust and is currently fundraising to help a young person who she met on the cancer ward get a new prosthetic leg.
A fundraising award went to 12-year-old Olly Mckenna from Gateshead. Keen footballer Olly regularly enjoyed playing team football until he was diagnosed with a brain tumour resulting in a major operation to remove it. Within a few days Olly asked for a ball and relentlessly started his own fight back to fitness. Within a month he was up on his feet dribbling up and down the hospital corridors irritating the nurses, but then he was told his tumour was cancerous and the start of gruelling high dose radiotherapy and chemotherapy commenced.
Throughout this very intense treatment, Olly has persuaded his doctors to let him out of hospital to zip wire across St James Park, organised The Sir Bobby Robson Trophy Tournament and has even flown a plane.
He has also raised more than £72,000 setting up his own fund #Team Olly. This was after discovering that children under 13 weren’t able to be supported by the facilities in the Teenage Cancer Trust centre. He arranged a meeting with the Clinical Director of the Great North Children’s Hospital to discuss to how to give the children on the ward a voice to improve facilities and future-proof the ward. He also set about getting a team of over 100 to run the Junior Great North Run and was determined that this was the only thing he wanted for his 12thbirthday. He completed the run flanked by his buddies. He has also organised a ball, a charity walk, a mad hair day, cake sales and more.
After having the most horrendous time the year before, he decided he didn’t want presents for Christmas as he wanted others to donate to good causes such as food banks. In his own words, “I’m determined to show that kids with cancer can have fun’.
Also from Gateshead, Martha Burrell (10) was just two years old when her mother, Helen, was diagnosed with breast cancer eight years ago, and her big sister Caitlin (15) was only seven. Martha had never known her mum not to be ill. Both girls have seen it all and over the years have missed parties, social events and family get togethers because of cancer.
Not long into her cancer journey, their mum found out that her cancer was incurable but she always took a ‘let’s get on with it approach’ and made sure that the next eight years were filled with making happy memories for her girls and her husband and that her girls were secure in her love for them both and rounded as individuals.
Because of the cancer, the girls had to grow up quickly and adapt to a lifestyle very different to their friends. Both became carers to Helen, helping her put on support stockings and assisting with household chores. Caitlin rang home every lunchtime to make sure her mum was coping, cooked tea and sorted out her mum’s medications offering a huge amount of support for her mam and her little sister. Martha did the washing up, wrote lovely notes and poems about how beautiful her mam was and gave her mam teddies when she saw her in pain. Their hugs and smiles were the reason Helen kept fighting, in her own words ‘they are my reason for getting up every morning’. Their mother’s determination, love of life and can-do approach has been passed on to both girls. They were at their mother side continuously, even to her final days, having sleepovers in the hospice.
But their courage doesn’t stop there. Helen and the girls shared a love of singing and amateur dramatics. All three involved themselves in community performances and one show they were all excitedly involved in preparing for was “The Little Mermaid” which was to be performed at the beginning of October 2018. Sadly, Helen lost her long battle with cancer and passed away quite suddenly in September last year.
Her funeral took place in October and this coincided with the opening night of the Little Mermaid. This is where Caitlin and Martha truly showed their amazing courage and strength. They still went on stage that night following their mam’s standing room only funeral and wowed the audience with their talent as that was what their mum would have wanted.
Not only that, they came off stage, pulled on Fighting All Cancers Together (FACT) charity t-shirts and held a bucket collection as the audience left. They wanted to say thank you for the support that FACT had shown their whole family for the last eight years.
In North Tyneside, Felix (8) and Mia (11) Browne from North Shields both look after their younger brother Milo. Milo has extremely complex health needs and suffers from seizures, scoliosis hypotonia and he is registered blind. He also has M313HA, a condition with less than 10 cases ever recorded. Milo has on average 100 seizures a day with every one potentially becoming fatal.
Both Mia and Felix know and understand medical terms children should not know and are proud siblings and involve Milo in everything they do. Both know they cannot save their brother, but they know they can make him as happy as they can.
Oliver Liddle, 13, from Whitley Bay son of former Royal Marine Steve Liddle very sadly had to recently have his leg amputated due to a rare form of bone cancer six years after his mum tragically passed away from the same disease.
Olly joined Whitley Bay Sea Cadets as a Junior at the age of 10. As he advanced through the corps at the age of 13 he transferred to the Royal Marine Cadets to follow in his dad’s footsteps.
Pains in his leg that Olly thought were growing pains was diagnosed as Osteosarcoma, a devasting blow as he lost his mother to breast cancer in 2012. Olly’s leg was amputated and, after chemotherapy in which he lost all his hair, the teenager has now been measured for a prosthetic leg.
During the chemotherapy he never complained and his desire to achieve has become an inspiration to the other cadets and all others around him. He still attends the Sea Cadets at Whitley Bay and refuses to let his disability stop him from enjoying the full cadet experience. The Royal Marine Association and the Rugby Football Club have appointed Olly as their mascot for the Royal Marines Family Day Game in September. He has also been presented with a Royal Marine Rugby shirt for showing all the Commando Qualities which are: courage, determination, unselfishness cheerfulness. Olly hopes to use his sporting prowess to become a Paralympian.
Just four days after 11 year old Wallsend twins Jack and Molly Thirlaway were born, Molly was diagnosed with meningitis and had to fight for her life. Tragically, she was left with severe epilepsy and learning difficulties. Ten weeks later Dad, Scott was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. For the next seven years the children played different roles. Jack cared and supported Molly, his dad and his mum Jenny by helping in any way he could. Molly needed lots of care and support too as she suffered from severe seizures and couldn’t be left alone.
In 2017, mum Jenny was diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer. Both Molly and Jenny went through very difficult periods of treatment, hospitalisation and severe bouts of extreme illness but Jack (not knowing how ill his Mum was), was there to care and support for both whilst at the same time, being a mate for his Dad. Sadly, Jenny lost her battle with cancer and wasn’t there to see Molly get her first award at school earlier this year.
Eight-year-old footballerJack Neesham from Sunderland is profoundly deaf, but this has not held him back from his love of the game.
Finding many mainstream activities restrictive for those with disabilities, Jack joined the Foundation of Light’s early years Little Dribblers football programme and school holiday courses four years ago.
Initially shy and withdrawn around those he didn’t know, his positive attitude and determination to be ‘one of the lads’ has seen his confidence soar and helped him become a stand-out player within his grassroots team, which is more than his parents could have hoped for.
Impressing his coaches with his hard work and development as a player but more importantly as a young man, he now attends the Foundation’s Player Development Programme, an invite only programme for talented young players which feeds into Sunderland AFC’s Academy.
In Newcastle, 15-year-old Courtney Logan from Kingston Park was born with cerebral palsy and additional complex physical needs. When she was four years old, she was admitted to the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit as her lungs had collapsed, due to her scoliosis becoming very severe. She had a spinal rod fitted as her ribs were touching her pelvis, putting pressure on all of her internal organs, and she was put on a vent to assist her lungs for a long time. Courtney has spent most of her childhood in hospitals in a lot of pain.
She is now able to sit in an up-right position which has given her a lot of confidence and self-esteem. She is also working hard to develop the use of her hands and arms which is a major impact for communicating, pointing and touching as she is non-verbal.
She started with Northern Counties School, with the PMLD unit (Profound and Multiple Learning Difficulties) three years ago and has worked extremely hard to develop herself since. She is still on a vent with a tracheostomy, fed through a gastro tube and non-verbal, but Courtney pushes herself every day to improve, and staff can see her trying to do more, even when exhausted at times.
Courtney enjoys cookery classes, meeting others and getting involved with social team building games. She is now able to use a switch with her left hand and can activate cause and effect programmes on the screen. She was recently assessed to use the SMART chair, and is now able to press switches to move the chair forward and backwards and choose from bubbles and skittles to interact with. She is happy to come into school every day and has a great sense of humour. Her ability to communicate her wants and needs is so much easier for her as she has the energy to concentrate and interact with her peers and staff.
Team Smile from Gosforth are part of the Smile for Life children’s charity, this charity helps disabled and disadvantaged children and their families across the north east. This help happens in various ways such as giving them an experience or providing equipment to make life a little bit easier.
Team Smile all have a range of different disabilities themselves yet they are all very keen to volunteer and help raise awareness and funds for smile for life. Their disabilities never hold them back and they are so enthusiastic in helping people less fortunate than themselves. The charity currently has five of the young people as ambassadors for Smile For Life, most of these young people also volunteer in the charity’s Café Beam.
In Durham, thirteen year old Tilly Lockey from Consett suffered Meningococcal Septicaemia B when she was 15 months old. She was given 0% chance of survival but won her fight, losing her hands and toe tips. Tilly has dedicated her life to raising awareness of Meningitis and has never let anything get in her way. She set herself the challenge to fundraise before going in for a recent leg operation as it would be the last time she could run for a while. Tilly smashed her challenge bringing in over £15k for Meningitis Now.
Tilly also gives up a lot of her own time helping prosthetic companies develop fun bionic hands for kids. When she was little there was nothing really good enough out there for children. Worried for how other kids would cope if they were used to having hands and then suddenly losing them Tilly wanted to help people who would need them even more than she did.
Since the age of six Tilly started to really help numerous prosthetics companies. She is now an ambassador for a company called Open Bionics and has helped with the design and development of the first medically approved 3d printed bionic hand in the UK.
Tilly has travelled the world speaking on panels about her story and bionic development. She has modelled at The Whitehouse, spoke on panels in Amsterdam, one alongside the Dalia Lama about Technology and Compassion. She has spoken at San Diego Comic Con and walked the red carpet at the recent Alita battle angel premiere. Tilly’s main focus now is to take away the stigma people feel toward prosthetics. Her ambition is to make people feel proud and cool to be wearing such incredible technology. She has inspired so many children and adults all over the world.
Mark Beverley from the St. James’s Place Charitable Foundation was proud of each of the children who won an award.
“When you see the level of courage and determination shown by these young people it makes you feel very humble. They are an inspiration to us all. I’m very proud of each and every one of them and they thoroughly deserve their award.”
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All Photography by Dan Aziz
Media Information Keith@highlightspr.co.uk 07814 397951