Category: News

“Good morning, just wanted to pass on mine and my partner Becks thanks and say thank you so much for our Milly’s smiles hospital bag. My five month old baby boy Cole was rushed into Alder Hay on Sunday with suspected leukaemia, he has been diagnosed with A.L.L and is having his lumber puncture and first bit of chemo today.

We were given the bag on Monday and all the things in it are beautiful especially the blanket….it’s Cole’s and his mum fav thing so it’s a battle as to who gets it first at the minute.

We can’t thank you enough it’s a wonderful thing that you do.

Anyway hope this puts as big a smile on your face as Milly’s Bag did on ours”

It is always heartwarming to hear first hand how much we help at such a difficult frightening time. We are so proud and humbled to be able to do this in Milly’s name. Sending love and strength to Cole and his family.

Sadly that can’t ever happen, however when we received a call from The Royal London Hospital asking if we could support their newly diagnosed families with our Milly Bags, I knew that Milly would want this!

So after several weeks of preparation 25 Milly Bags were collected today for delivery to Ward 7D at The Children’s Hospital which is part of The Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, London.

We are very proud that we are in the position to support another hospital and it warms my heart that it is somewhere Milly knew.

We are hoping that our Milly Bags will make a difference to all the newly diagnosed families admitted onto Ward 7D in supporting them at the start of their difficult journey.

It is always so lovely to be able to take our Milly Bags in person to the hospitals, we love to meet the staff and whilst it is heartwarming to hear how much they appreciate our bags, we also know how lucky we are to have the hospital staff’s support, in allowing us to provide Milly Bags for their newly diagnosed families.

It is definately a team effort, and we couldn’t do it without the help and support of so many people in so many ways.

Rosie’s daughter, Emma was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia when she was only a few months old, and they were imediately admitted onto Ward 84 and given of our Milly Bags.

Rosie has supported Milly’s Smiles previously when her school raised money last year for us, and she knew that she wanted to continue with that support, so asked for donations to our charity in memory of her grandma.

After raising such an amazing amount Rosie told us that ‘there has been amazing generosity in the darkest of times’.

We feel very humbled by the kindness shown by everyone who has donated and send our love and very kindest wishes to all the family.

The family run business founded by George Lamb in 1972, told us how impressed they are with the good work that we do in supporting families of children newly diagnosed with cancer.

Blackburn Chemicals Holdings also made a very generous donation of £10,000 to allow us to continue with our work.

To say we were overwhelmed is a huge understatement, this is phenomenal, and will make such a huge difference to Milly’s Smiles.

Receiving support from a prestigious local company is wonderful, and we are so very grateful and thankful for their kindness and support.

Rachel has been busy organising a raffle with some tremendous prizes and a cake sale which saw British Bake Off being given a run for their money.

We are so very grateful for all this amazing support, it always warms our heart when families want to support us.

We send lots of love to Lorayah and all her family for her ongoing treatment.

I understand this and accept it because knowing what to say is so hard, I know people don’t want to upset me and worry if they mention Milly that will happen.

Grief is something that is not understood or talked about by many people, yet apart from birth, death is the only other thing in life that is totally guaranteed…… death and grief ultimately travel hand in hand.

Milly’s School – St Augustine’s RC High School got it right, from the moment Milly should have attended school as a year 7 pupil in September 2015 they have been supportive and kind, initially with her diagnosis and treatment, and then with her being taken to heaven.

Her form tutor told me that he considered Milly as much a part of his year as everyone else.

The school gave support in so many ways; allowing us to have Milly’s bench there for her friends to gather, acknowledging her anniversary every year giving love and support to her friends and to me as Milly’s mum. They supported her charity raising money and arranging toothbrush collections for us, along with a host of other things.

The school totally got it right and this warms my heart and fills me with love.

Finally as her classmates prepared to leave school and make their way forward in the world Milly was included, her name is on the leavers hoodie, which I wear on her behalf with pride and her picture is included in the leavers book along with her classmates.

Never be afraid to talk to someone about their child, or to include their child, especially at this time of year. Seeing Milly’s name on Christmas cards to me is getting it right, remembering to mention her is important, even if all you say is ‘I don’t know what to say but I am thinking of you’…. as bereaved grieving parents, it’s all we need to hear.

Initially they raised a fantastic amount of £430, however this has since been topped up to £600 by two very generous donations.

A massive thanks goes to everyone who took part, we think are all amazing and very brave!

We have to mention the wonderful Rick and Rachel of Be Strong, they have worked so hard and give their unfaltering support constantly to Milly’s Smiles and for this we thank you so very much.