See selfless family of girl who died of rare cancer bring Christmas cheer to children's hospital
A new foundation launched in the name of a girl who died of a rare form of cancer has brought some festive joy to a city hospital.
Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276
Members of the Gracie Tudor Foundation, who call themselves Gracie's Army, visited Birmingham Children's Hospital to hand out more than £5,000 worth of presents to children facing a Christmas spent in hospital.
It was a day of smiles for the members of the foundation, which was named after Gracie following her death from neuroblastoma, a rare type of cancer, on October 19 aged three, having spent long periods being treated at Birmingham Children's Hospital.
Her mother Clare Jones said that Gracie's death was still very sad, she didn't want her daughter's death to be in vain and she wanted to do something to help other children as well as their families suffering from neuroblastoma and other cancers.
Ms Jones, who lives in Kingswinford, said she and her husband Stephen had been left with more than £130,000 from a fundraiser to take Gracie to the USA for treatment and decided to set up the foundation in her memory.
She said: "We'd been collecting money from donations to send her to America for specialist treatment but, obviously, Gracie didn't make it, and we were left with all this money, which has been collected since April.
"We're still getting people donating, so we decided to set up the foundation to help children with neuroblastoma, especially to take the financial burden off of parents.
"That can be by giving them £100 per month by direct debit or buying them an iPad or taking the children to Disneyland Paris for the weekend, anything that can help them."
Ms Jones said Gracie had fought hard and had appeared to be cancer-free at one point, but a subsequent scan found her to have more tumours, so she and her husband Stephen took Gracie home, where she died 13 days later.
She said that the decision to do the present drop at the hospital had only been agreed five days previously, but it had proved a cathartic experience for her and her husband and had been greeted with a wonderful reception from people at the hospital.
She said: "Everyone came over and asked what was going on and who we were and some of the children outside weren't even in the oncology ward and were asking if they could have a present, so we said of course and probably handed out about 100 presents before we even got through the doors.
"Everyone was taking photos and asking who we were and we've probably ended up with about 1,000 new Instagram followers, which is wonderful."
Ms Jones said the next steps for the foundation were to hold a masquerade ball in March as a fundraiser and to continue helping families in any way the foundation could.
She said: "To be able to send a family £1,000 to pay their bills is why we have this foundation as there are families who can't afford to pay their mortgages and are at risk of being homeless, so it's all very real and very raw.
"It will mainly be for children with neuroblastoma as it is such a hard disease to cure, but I'm the sort of person who will help anyone, so we will offer help to any families with children with cancer.
"I know that Gracie will be looking down and will be very proud of us as we were very proud of her, and we can't just sit back with all this money and not do anything."
To find out more and to donate to the Gracie Tudor Foundation, go to gofundme.com/f/gracies-treatment-in-america.
