"My son Theo was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) in May 2015 when he was 5 years old. A few people had mentioned there was a local charity, LEAF to me so I got in contact. Tash came round to the house and was an instant hit with Theo who came and squeezed in between us both to show her some games on his iPad. She was very easy to talk to and was keen to know what she could do to help. One of the things I had been struggling with was keeping on top of housework with frequent hospital trips, as well as juggling my part time job. Leaf arranged for a regular cleaner to come round and after spending a long day in hospital it is such a relief to walk into a gleaming house and not have to do any cleaning.
Tash has kept in touch via text 'checking-in' regularly to see how I am, it is always good to hear from her. Leaf have also funded a day out at Adventure wonderland so that the family could do something all together as both my children love it there. We particularly wanted to do something that appealed to our daughter as she had had a hard time coping with her brothers diagnosis. All in all Leaf has made our lives a lot easier."
Pat Sansom, Michaels mother
"At the beginning of June 2008, my son Michael was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, this was a month before his 19th birthday. It came as a shock for everyone as Michael hadn’t been ill.He had to spend about eleven weeks in an isolation ward as his immunity was so low. It was during this time that the ward clerk, Jenny, mentioned a charity called ‘Leaf’ and suggested I email them. This I did and was very quickly contacted by Tash and Sara offering us a family break for when Michael was discharged from hospital. We all went to Center Parcs, Longleat and had the most wonderful time relaxing and enjoying each other’s company away from a hospital bed.Michael continued his treatment as an outpatient and was determined to regain the physical fitness he’d had prior to his admission.
To this end ‘Leaf” took out a membership to the health club Esporta on Michael’s behalf and he became a very regular visitor there. Michael is still in treatment and will be until August 2012. Obviously we are all counting the days, however, the support and great friendship shown to our family by ‘Leaf’ has made what could have been a truly terrible ordeal much more bearable. Thank you for all you do – long may you continue to bring a bit of sunshine into what could otherwise be a very bleak time for many."
Hi Natasha,
I am so glad I've finally found a contact email for you. I don't know if you will remember but I spoke to you in November 2013 about my husband Daniel he had just been diagnosed with leukaemia and you kindly funded for him to have his sperm frozen I'd like to thank you so much for doing that for us when theNHS wouldn't. I wanted to contact you sooner but lost your details and Dan became very poorly he had a Bone marrow transplant in April last year and has had many complications since and became so ill to the point we nearly lost him he lost 9 stone and went down to under 6 stone March this year due to gvhd of the gut.
He's currently on steroids and immune suppressants and doing A lot better and has gone up to 10 stone so I'd like to now say thank you for your help we have thought about you a lot recently as Daniel is attending Salisbury hospital next month to have his sperm count tested. I haven't fallen pregnant as of yet and Dr's say after transplant you are normally 100% infertile completely but we still want to see. I hope you are well too and sending many thanks from Daniel and myself.
Lisa xx
