Dolls made by a loving Harborough mum are travelling the world to visit the places her poorly daughter is not able to.
Jan Hamilton created a peg doll to represent brave daughter Sophie, who has incurable cancer.
Jan Hamilton created a peg doll to represent brave daughter Sophie, who has incurable cancer.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscription
00:00 Oh no, it's the skirt, doesn't matter.
00:03 I was in that first hospital for three months
00:26 and I essentially couldn't eat for that whole time.
00:29 I think I lost three stone.
00:31 And for me being a former professional dancer,
00:33 I was like, "Marvellous!"
00:35 I've got the ballet physique I always wanted.
00:38 This is my isolation room.
00:46 Here's my little toilet.
00:48 There's my little window.
00:49 When I went into the room and they said,
00:54 "You've got cancer, you've got stage four cancer."
00:57 Of course my first words were, "Am I gonna die?"
00:59 Because that's what we worry about, isn't it?
01:01 But I knew I'd got Ollie, my son,
01:04 sitting, waiting by my bed.
01:07 So I knew I just had to take a really, really big,
01:11 very deep breath, put on the boxing gloves and brave pants,
01:15 and turn it into a positive.
01:17 So I just walked in and went, "It's fine, it's fine.
01:19 "I've got cancer, but it's gonna be okay.
01:21 "It's gonna be absolutely fine."
01:22 After the surgery, the surgeons essentially said
01:27 I'd got the all clear, and then about a year later,
01:31 after a long recovery, it turns out
01:34 that it hadn't been all clear,
01:35 and that it had been there all the time.
01:37 So I thought I'd give you all a laugh.
01:48 I am now officially an elephant.
01:56 We need the research.
01:58 Without the research, we can't get anywhere,
02:00 and it's the research that gives us hope,
02:03 and it's the research that keeps you going
02:05 as a cancer patient, hoping that something new will come,
02:09 because it does, doesn't it?
02:10 It does, and that's what we need.
02:13 When you start to get really, really, really poorly,
02:16 that's when it's a different ballgame,
02:18 and I understand that totally.
02:21 I still won't give up then, either.
02:22 I just, you know, there's something I refuse.
02:25 I point blank refuse.
02:27 I just wanted to do something, anything, to help Sophie,
02:41 and I couldn't do what I wanted to do,
02:43 which was make her better,
02:47 and so I thought, well, fundraising was a good thing,
02:52 and I looked at some Christmas decorations,
02:55 and that's where the idea came from,
02:57 and this little creature emerged
03:00 that reminded me of Sophie, beautiful and smiling
03:04 and with her arms out, ready to give everybody a hug,
03:07 and I thought she embodies the spirit,
03:10 which I know so well, in Sophie.
03:13 My mum is my saviour.
03:14 She's the one that's literally helped me through
03:16 every single day my mum has been there.
03:20 - No, I mean, I touched the glue.
03:22 - Oh, you did?
03:23 (laughing)
03:24 - I am so touched that people have tuned in
03:26 to what it's all about,
03:28 and so it's kind of given us an awful lot back, hasn't it?
03:33 - Yeah, yeah.
03:33 - We're still sending them out, anyway, aren't we?
03:35 - We are.
03:36 (gentle music)
03:38 (gentle music)
03:41 (gentle music)
03:44 (gentle music)
03:46 (music fades)