For Bessie

Hello our lovely community,

This week our nomination came in form a wonderful member Nicki, who’s friends are having the most awful time.

As a parent, I don’t even want to begin to imagine how awful it must be to hear your child is ill, but also at that time, to have money worries must be crushing, and we are here to hopefully ease slightly.

To allow a family to focus on the important journey ahead, and to Bessie knowing there are 500 people supporting her.

Here is the nomination in full.

Hi all i wondered if you would consider my friends Molly &Mike as one of your 500 reasons in helping their  11 year old  Daughter Bessie 💔❤️‍🩹 here is there story so far its early days

But no one knowa what the future holds

Just before Christmas Bessie was complaining of mild pain in her left leg, just above the knee. We attributed it to growing pains or an awkward twist, but the pain kept getting worse. Following an X-ray in early January we were shocked & devastated to learn that our beautiful girl has a rare type of bone cancer called Osteosarcoma. This affects around 35 children a year in Great Britain.

From that day our lives have been turned upside down. We’ve spent a lot of time in hospitals, between Truro, Bristol & Birmingham, in order to fully understand the specifics of her condition and put together a treatment plan. 

Bessie has now started the harrowing journey of chemotherapy in Bristol Children’s Hospital, to be followed by surgery in April to save her leg. Then there’s more chemotherapy until October (9 months of treatment). Bessie has had to have one of her ovaries removed in order to protect it from chemo damage. This has been sent to Oxford where it’s being cryopreserved; it can then be returned to her body later in life should she wish to have babies.

Molly and I are both self-employed. We followed our dream to establish Zennor Wayside, a gift shop and gardens, here in our family home back in 2020. Just before all of this, and following a very difficult previous year, we had had to close our business through January to undertake necessary renovation work. Our plan was to re-open in the spring / summer, and then unfortunately put our home & business on the market. Despite our previous stoic and positive outlook, this new turn of events has put us on our knees. Zennor Wayside is now completely closed and our lives are on hold. Everything depends on Bessie’s treatment going well and getting her better.

Until we can re-open our business we have lost our main income, but we’re facing significant costs. We have one car between us and it’s not currently fit for ongoing, regular trips to Bristol over the next 9 months. We need to adapt our house (a higgledy piggledy Cornish cottage) for Bessie’s reduced mobility. We hope to set up a recovery / physio / exercise space in our home to nurse Bessie back to health following her surgery and chemotherapy.

We’re incredibly fortunate and grateful to have such a wonderful medical team taking care of Bessie (and us and her little brother). She’s been so brave throughout, remaining resolute and strong despite the fear, pain and sadness that no child should have to endure. We’ve been overwhelmed by love and support from our family and friends, for which we are eternally grateful. It’s extremely difficult for us to ask for help, even in our darkest hour, but our love for Bessie and her future overrides this.

Any funds that we manage to raise will go directly towards aiding Bessie’s treatment and recovery, and providing comfort for her as she fights this awful illness.

We thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Mike & Molly