Parent riding Prudential Ride London-Surrey 100 for son lost to cancer

PRESS RELEASE SUMMARY

Samuel Leib lost his battle to cancer aged 9. While in hospital Samuel started his charity to bring some relief and fun into the dark, scary and painful time that serious and terminal conditions create. His father, Martin, continues Samuel's Charity along with family members, raising money for children's wards and individual children in great need.

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Four years on from Samuel's death and the charity is growing and helping thousands of children each year.

Providing medical and entertainment equipment that would not otherwise be possible for the children's wards is the core of Samuel's Charity. Items like an Accuvein that reduce or remove the pain of injections and cannulas, air conditioning units and sofa beds so parents can stay with their children are vital but the NHS can't afford them. Entertainment equipment from TVs to WiFi, Android Tablets, VR Headsets (just started providing these and they are amazing!), gaming consoles, sensory equipment and much, much more all help to improve the daily life of a child going through a serious condition.

But do toys help? It was Samuel that taught me about this. Put yourself in a child's place: confined to bed all day, medicine three or four times a day - often making you sick, cause awful side effects and pain or scream (injections etc), the inability to eat or go to the toilet yourself or even at all. All the things you used to be able to do on your own - run around, play, eat - taken away. Then add the fear of what the next procedure or operation will be, the worry of what will happen to you or even having to face your own mortality at such a young age. Not to mention having to put up with your parents with you in that small room all day long. Not finished yet: IF your friends and family do visit, which is often far too infrequent, they can look at you with horror and sometimes fear and sympathy. Like you are some kind of circus freak.

Now, having a way to escape this for a while each day, to be that child again - playing and laughing, it certainly seems much more important. In fact, some children suffer from depression and give up fighting. If we can help by bringing some relief and smiles into their awful day then we can reduce their suffering and help them on the way through recovery.

This is why we continue. This is why Samuel's father does so many events each year. On the 29th July he will be doing the Prudential Ride 100 with three other team mates to raise much needed donations. Samuel's Charity helps the hospitals and individual children that are often overlooked. Some children's wards get great support form charities but there are many that have so little support and this hurts the children. Some families just can't afford to get their child a Tablet or similar - many parents have to give up work to care long term for their child. We are here to help them.