Help children with brain tumours!

A campaign by the Daniella Logun Foundation.

No one likes to think about brain tumours or childhood cancers. However, clinical research shows that brain tumours are the biggest childhood cancer killers today and are responsible for 1 in 5 child cancer deaths in the UK.

This was Daniella's story (in photo). Our beautiful daughter was diagnosed in 2015. She was fit and healthy, and her first symptom began only as a minor eye complaint.  Unfortunately, she remained undiagnosed for some time as nothing seemed to be physically wrong with her. However, her eyes worsened in just a matter of weeks before she was referred to the local children's A&E.  An incidental MRI scan revealed a growth in her brain, and the medical anxiety began. Nothing could have prepared us for what was to come. Receiving the news of a brain tumour diagnosis in your child is one of the most impossible situations any family can ever experience.  It felt like our world crashed all at once.  We were devastated, and our lives changed permanently. Dannie was suddenly overwhelmed with hospital appointments, biopsies, MRI scans and various clinics!  The colour faded, the music stopped, and family life as we knew it ended.  It all happened so fast; sadly, Dannie passed away after a few short months. 

Our experience is not unfamiliar, and sadly 98% of our families have experienced this because a brain tumour is not like any other cancer.  Children diagnosed with brain tumours experience permanent disabilities early!  Within weeks, a diagnosed child can quickly lose mobility, speech, language, sight and hearing and develop Special Educational Needs (SEND), learning disabilities or behavioural difficulties.  100% of our families tell us they have been thrown into the centre of a fast-paced rollercoaster brain tumour care environment and feel they have very little time to react, think or speak. Inherent shock.  Many of our parents are left grieving and feel redundant from the point of diagnosis.  Siblings become withdrawn, and close friends and relatives feel disconnected and redundant.  Social relationships fade when families need them most.  Years after their child's passing, our bereaved parents still grieve their experience post their child's diagnosis.  

Children diagnosed with brain tumours or other cancers are not offered holistic wellbeing support at the point of their diagnosis.  Neither are their close family or primary carers who suffer grie, making the experience feel more isolated, overwhelming and traumatising. 

This might be Dannie's outcome, but it doesn't have to be the same for other children. Today, the Daniella Logun Foundation exists to offer emotional, practical and spiritual wellbeing support to children diagnosed with cancer and their families/primary carers within Hillingdon and the surrounding areas. We are active in providing a service that enables families to have a positive palliative care journey and an improved experience for children at End-of-Life.

There is currently no children's cancer charity within Hillingdon. However, we are working on a solution to provide one-to-one holistic support to our children and their families and to re-establish a children’s hospice/specialist medically equipped Home-Away-From-Home within Hillingdon. As a new charity established just pre-COVID, we are looking for a base to enable us to build and eventually establish a children's hospice within our community."

We need to do more to ensure no other child or family experiences this in isolation!  Your donation will help us reach more Children & Young People diagnosed with brain tumours and their families today. 

Your support will contribute towards the running costs of delivering

Please click the 'Donate' button to help us offer hope and support to vulnerable children & their families!    Without this holistic wellbeing support, families can experience longer-term emotional, spiritual, and physical trauma - severe ongoing wellbeing trauma, financial poverty, relationship breakdown and health complications. 

We are a small charity and offer a bespoke service to meet our clients where they are. 

Your donation can help us fund more sustainable services to offer our children more reliable support.  Thank you. 

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Please click the 'Donate' button to help us reach more Children & Young People diagnosed with brain tumours and their families today. 

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Please think about this before you go:   

COVID-19 has exposed the importance of wellbeing support during a health crisis.  This pressure is exceptionally more significant for Children & Young People diagnosed with brain tumours and their families.  Families experience more isolation, financial uncertainty and stress, and their extremely vulnerable situations.  Anxiety and fear are palpable for our Clinically Extremely Vulnerable children. 

We need to reach more BAME, faith, migrant & other protected communities who are disproportionately impacted compared to other communities.  A lack of wellbeing support increases the pressure on these smaller cohorts and segregates them within the community.

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR DONATION.