LAURIE

Laurie Engel was a smart, funny, charming, sparky, sporty boy. Until he was 11 he never had a more serious ailment than athlete's foot.

He lived on a farm in Herefordshire with his parents, Matthew and Hilary, and little sister Vika.

Laurie wanted to win Wimbledon or, failing that, be a sports writer like his dad. Almost anything seemed possible – except what did happen. He was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive cancer. Despite 17 months of intensive treatment, he died in September 2005, aged 13.

Laurie's friends often speak of his kindness. He said he wanted to make a difference. His family set up the Laurie Engel Fund to make sure that he would.


THE LAURIE ENGEL FUND

Laurie was treated at the Birmingham Children's Hospital, the childhood cancer centre for much of England. The Engel family found the medical care there world-class, but the facilities and surroundings dismal. The hospital staff are also desperate to improve things.

The Fund is working with Teenage Cancer Trust and the hospital to ensure that future patients have better conditions than Laurie did.  Building work is about to start on an entirely new ward for teenagers, which has been designed in consultation with patients, parents, TCT and hospital staff.  It will be completed in the spring of 2009.  Laurie's fund now stands at well over £750,000, but the ward will cost more than £2 million altogether.

The new ward at Birmingham Childrens Hospital will brighten the lives of many sick teenagers in years to come, and the Engels think Laurie would be very proud.


TEENAGE CANCER TRUST

Each day in the UK six teenagers will be diagnosed with cancer – that is over 2,200 diagnoses a year. Fewer than half of them will be treated on a Teenage Cancer Trust ward, where facilities have been specially designed to meet their needs. These units can improve survival rates. The TCT aims to build enough units in NHS hospitals so that every teenager with cancer can have access to one. Each unit costs about £2 million to build.

 

 

SPRING 2008

The fund now stands at well over £800,000. 

Fund-raising events already planned for this year include a canoeing expedition, a gala comedy evening, a ball, and a marathon bike ride.

The canoeing expedition has been organised by 13-year-old Max Carleton-Smith, a former schoolfriend of Laurie’s, together with a group of his friends from Abberley Hall School.  They plan to spend three days in June canoeing along the Wye.  Click here to sponsor Max’s expedition.

The Teenage Cancer Trust Gala Comedy Evening M and M Direct Ltd, one of Teenage Cancer Trust’s long standing supporters, is sponsoring a gala night of comedy on Wednesday 9th July at the Courtyard Theatre in Hereford.

Headliner for the night will be the notoriously sardonic comedian and actor Sean Hughes (left), backed up by four top comedians, Adam Bloom, Simon Evans, David Hadingham and the compere for the night, Gordon Southern. One has been described as ‘my favourite comedian’ by Ricky Gervais, two have written extensively for television and radio and the other is a globe-trotting award-winning comic.

Joining this stellar cast of comedians is singer-songwriter Anna Ditchburn.

Tickets are £20, with all proceeds divided between the Laurie Engel Fund and the Little Princess Trust, which provides wigs for children undergoing chemotherapy.

For more information and to book tickets please visit www.courtyard.org.uk or call 01432 359252.

The Bank Holiday Ball will take place on Sunday 24 August at Cefyn Clytha, Llangattock Lingoed, near Abergavenny, by kind permission of George and Fiona Chandler.  It is being organised by Sally Bevan and Buddug Cass, and sponsored by the Wye Valley Group.  There will be a marquee big enough to hold 200 people, and as well as music, dancing and delicious food there will be an auction with fabulous prizes, including holidays in Spain and France. The auctioneer and MC will be William Chadwick of Chadwick Straker in Abergavenny.  Donations are invited for tickets.  For more details contact bankholidayball@btinternetcom.

The “18 Counties” bike ride is being planned by cricket writers Colin Bateman and David Lloyd.  They plan to cover a terrifying 1,000 miles in 16 days, visiting all 18 of the first-class cricket county headquarters. They will set out from The Oval on September 13 and aim to return to Lord’s on September 28, going as far as Chester-le-Street in Durham and Taunton in Somerset.  

They will be joined on the ride by Colin’s sons Tom (20) and Jack (18), and his nephew Alan Dracey.  All proceeds will be divided between Laurie’s fund and Heads Up, a charity backed by former England cricketer Hugh Morris, which aids research into cancers of the head and neck.

More details to follow.

There is now a firm timetable for the building of the new teenage ward in Birmingham.  It is all taking a little longer than we had hoped; but the completion date is now early 2009.

WATCH OUR VIDEO NOW!

To view the short documentary made by David Raibin about Laurie and the work of the Fund, please click here.

EXTRACTS FROM THE RED NOTEBOOKS

Matthew's new book, published by Macmillan, is a collection of quirky quotes, jokes and facts jotted down over more than a quarter of a century. It has already won rave reviews from Bill Bryson, John Cleese, Sebastian Faulks, Maureen Lipman and Jeremy Paxman. To read Matthew’s Financial Times article about the book, click here.

All royalties will go to the fund.  It is on sale at all good bookshops, and some not-so-good ones.  We also have copies for sale ourselves.