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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 younger 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. An entirely new ward for teenagers, which has been designed in consultation with patients, parents, TCT and hospital staff, is now complete.

Laurie's fund now stands at over £1.1 million, but the ward has cost about £2.5 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.
 

 

UPDATE – SPRING 2012

A WALK ALONG THE MOUNTAINS

On a glorious spring day, our three intrepid postmen, Keith Bradley, Paul Higgins and Ki Jenkins, completed their 17-mile hike along the mountain ridge from Hay-on-Wye to Craswall and back again.

When we met them on the Cat’s Back they presented us with a pile of donations, and appeared to be enjoying themselves.
With the help of Royal Mail, they had delivered leaflets about the walk and Laurie’s fund to 2200 of their regular customers. 

There has been a fantastically generous response. Including Gift Aid, the total will be around £5000. 

It was a great idea, and Keith, Paul and Ki carried it out with enormous enthusiasm and efficiency.  Once again it demonstrated to us how kind our fellow Herefordians are.  Many, many thanks to the three star walkers and everyone who supported them.

LAPTOPS FOR PRE-TEENS

This spring Laurie’s fund has been able to make a small difference to the lives of the younger cancer patients at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. 

The old ward 15, in which Laurie was treated, remains as it was then fairly sparsely equipped, in contrast to the super-duper TCT unit right next door. 

It is probably going to be re-furbished in the near future, together with the rest of the oncology department.  But this project requires £2 million plus, and is still at an early planning stage. 

With the agreement of TCT, the Fund has just donated six lap-tops to be used by pre-teen patients, so that they won’t have to be quite so green with envy at all the facilities enjoyed by their teenage neighbours. 

NEWCASTLE UNIT OPENED

With the Birmingham unit complete, and money still coming in, Laurie's fund has been able to help out with another TCT project, at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle.

Although there was already a unit there for younger teenagers, there was no provision for patients aged 18 to 24, who were having to be moved onto an adult oncology ward for their treatment.

With the help of £150,000 from Laurie's fund, TCT has now re-furbished an existing ward in the hospital to create an 8-bed unit, with recreation space, kitchenette, dining area, juke box, pool table and seating. The ward includes a single en-suite bone marrow transplant bedroom.

Work has been completed on schedule, and the new unit is already fully occupied.

LIFE ON THE NEW UNIT

We were impressed on a recent visit to the new unit in Birmingham to hear about the many activities now available to patients. 



We saw a display of collages produced in a recent workshop with a professional artist, who came in to work with the young people.  A musician comes in weekly to run jamming sessions.  Other things going on include cookery, arts and crafts and pizza nights.

A group who had finished their treatment went in the spring to the TCT’s annual national conference, ‘Find your sense of tumour’; and another group went on an overnight trip to London, to one of the shows staged annually by TCT at the Albert Hall.  And there is a regular support group/social evening for patients which runs monthly.



Youth support coordinator, Zoe Allton, employed by Teenage Cancer Trust, has been working here for a year now, and is full of enthusiasm and ideas for what can be done to help the young patients cope with their situation.  On the wall of the social space, a collection of photos of smiling faces is a souvenir of many happy shared experiences.  It is great to see that the new unit is not just a building: it is a community.

WATCH OUR VIDEO NOW
To view the short film made by David Goodale about Laurie, the Fund and the building of the new unit, please click here.


Photography: Jason Pitt

FOR LATEST FUND-RAISING EFFORTS BY LAURIE’S FRIENDS SEE “WHAT’S HAPPENING” PAGE

WATCH OUR VIDEO NOW!

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

Laurie's Well This is not about fund-raising, but simply to acknowledge the wonderful tribute which has been made to Laurie at his school, Fairfield.  High up above the school in an area of woodland, a well was discovered, which used to feed the original Victorian house.  The head teacher of the school, Chris Barker, decided to make it a place where staff and pupils can go when they need peace and quietness to talk, or think.  He and the head of science, Paul Brereton, built a stone well head and made seating out of oak planks; a tall oak obelisk donated by David Parker has been set up; and pupils have cleared undergrowth and planted many woodland flowers and bulbs round about, as well as decorating the area with all sorts of sculpture.  It is a beautiful place, with marvellous views across the Golden Valley.  We are very touched that Laurie is being remembered in this way. 


Ursula Russell and Tom Don, pupils at Fairfield High School, chatting at Laurie’s Well.  Photo by Tom Wilkes

Matty Groves by the Fair Field A CD for Laurie performed by a group of his friends from Fairfield High School. Click here for more info.

LAURIE: The Boy Who Lived A book that tells the story of Laurie’s life in his own and others’ words. Click here for more info.

EXTRACTS FROM THE RED NOTEBOOKS

Matthew's 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. Please contact us to buy copies.