A Newbury family share their story of how Daisy's Dream helped them through the toughest time of their lives. The film, made by a Newbury film maker, has been entered into The Smiley Charity Film Awards. You can vote for it here - https://smileycharityfilmawards.com/films/the-wilsons-story - to ensure they get through to the finals.
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00:00I don't know what I would have done without Daisy's dream.
00:08From the moment they picked up the phone call to say that my husband had two weeks left
00:14to live, I instantly felt so much relief and for me as a parent that just guided me through
00:22the first six months of Paul dying.
00:30So I met Paul when I was 21 and we hit it off straight away.
00:35We got married a few years later and a year after we got married our first daughter Poppy
00:41was born.
00:46We just loved being new parents and we knew that we wanted another one quite soon after.
00:53So 16 months later our second daughter Annabelle was born and then we wanted to grow our family
01:01so we decided to have another baby so we had our third daughter Holly, she was born a few
01:06years later.
01:15And then four years after that we had our fourth daughter Georgie.
01:24I always remember standing in my grandfather's kitchen when Georgie was six months old and
01:32he said, oh so how are things going Sarah and I said, oh amazing life has just reached
01:37perfection and we've got four perfect daughters, life is pretty perfect.
01:48And then literally a month after that Paul started complaining of a cough, he had a bit
01:56of a persistent cough and a few months later he decided to go to the GP and get checked
02:02out.
02:04Within 24 hours he was sent for a CT scan and the CT scan unfortunately showed a mass
02:11within his chest wall so from there on in our world changed overnight.
02:20He was straight into hospital for biopsies and within a few days they told us that Paul
02:26had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma which is a blood cancer.
02:33We had a book about lymphoma and Paul came home from the hospital, sat the older two
02:38on his lap and we talked briefly about what lymphoma was.
02:44Cancer didn't necessarily mean death but it wasn't going to be easy, he had to embark
02:49on chemotherapy and we were just going to take each day at a time.
02:57There were lots of bumps along the way, Paul responded well initially at first to his chemotherapy
03:03and unfortunately he had a bowel perforation where he was in intensive care for six weeks
03:09and that was really hard for the children.
03:12They were coming into hospital most days, weren't you, to come and see daddy?
03:21Paul did come out of intensive care, he made a really good recovery, he was able to come
03:27home and embark on some more chemotherapy.
03:30We went on some lovely holidays in that time and we really made the most of being a family.
03:42Then unfortunately, 16 months after Paul's diagnosis, he got really poorly and went into
03:50hospital and it was at that point that we found out that the cancer had spread to Paul's
03:57pancreas, kidneys, brain and the haematologist sat me down in a side room and said actually
04:05Paul has got two weeks left to live.
04:13At that point, I'd heard about the charity Daisy's Dream, I think it was about half an
04:19hour after we were told Paul had two weeks left to live that I called Daisy's Dream up.
04:25Somebody picked up the phone straight away, which I'm eternally grateful for, and I just
04:31blurted out, you know, he's got two weeks left to live, how do I tell my children?
04:39They were very calm on the phone and talked me through it all and said that you have to
04:44just be very matter of fact.
04:47I felt like I just needed to tell them straight away, so I said, come upstairs, we all jumped
04:53on the bed together and I sat them all down and I said, you know, mummy's got something
04:58to tell you.
05:06I was just reliving that bit.
05:10I never really go back to it.
05:24I was probably making a phone call to Daisy's Dream every other day, they said just call
05:29us, keep us updated.
05:33One of the things the girls did ask is when daddy dies, could we be there, and that threw
05:38me, so I called Daisy's Dream and just ran it past them and they said of course, don't
05:44feel that, you know, it's important that they don't feel that they're shut out from this.
05:49Paul woke up a few hours before he died and he said he was in a bit of pain and that perhaps
05:56we should call somebody and I called an ambulance to come and see him and you'd woken up, I
06:03think, with all the sort of commotion and Poppy had woken up, the other two were asleep
06:07and you said, oh, is this it now?
06:09And I said, yeah, daddy's dying and you said, well, can I come in and see him?
06:13So knowing that I'd spoken to Daisy's Dream and I'd spoken to her and I'd spoken to the
06:18family, so knowing that I'd spoken to Daisy's Dream and them saying that it was okay for
06:22them to be there, I felt, yeah, that was the most natural thing to have the girls in there,
06:28in our bedroom when he died and it was, as deaths go, it was lovely, you know, we were
06:34all around him and actually now, seven years on, when I speak to you and Poppy, you're
06:40really pleased that you were there.
06:42Yeah.
06:43I think that's helped with your grief and moving forward.
06:47It definitely gives you closure, I suppose.
06:49Yeah, yeah, so I'm really pleased that I sort of sought advice from Daisy's Dream about
06:57that because it's really helped us as a family move forward.
07:03When I was younger, obviously no one really at primary school had ever lost a parent,
07:19so I tried to speak to them about it but they never really got it and I dealt with it very
07:25differently to my siblings as well, like I was quite angry about it.
07:29So speaking to people at Daisy's Dream, like they really validated my feelings and like
07:35made me know that it was normal, which I think helped me in the long run especially.
07:40So we at Daisy's Dream support children and young people and their families who are facing
07:49bereavement or who have been bereaved.
07:52Our key work is providing one-to-one support for children and young people, group work,
07:59which is really important, telephone support for, mostly that's for parents, other professionals
08:09and we offer training to schools as well.
08:13Obviously the fundraising is a big part of our work as well.
08:18Without that and without our community support, we couldn't do any of our work.
08:27From the moment that Daisy's Dream picked up the phone call, they were absolutely amazing,
08:33such a lifeline for me and I just don't know that we would be in such a great position
08:39as we are now without all of their support and guidance.
08:43They were absolutely amazing and we're so lucky to have heard about them and to have
08:49had their support.
09:14Daisy's Dream
09:18www.daisydream.org