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Heart Breakfast's Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden surprise Abby's Heroes charity with £55,584

31 March 2022, 09:35 | Updated: 31 March 2022, 09:43

Abby's Heroes were presented with a cheque for £55,584

By Naomi Bartram

@naomibartram

Heart's charity Global's Make Some Noise raised over £50,000 for Abby's Heroes.

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Founder of Abby’s Heroes charity Sally Randall joined Jamie Theakston and Amanda Holden on Heart Breakfast this week.

Sally set up Abby’s Heroes in memory of her daughter Abby Randall, who was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma at just eight years old in 2013.

Global’s Make Some Noise grants £2.5million to small charities across the UK

After 23 rounds of chemotherapy, 50 days of radiotherapy, stem cell harvesting and pioneering surgery, Abby was officially declared in remission in 2014.

But the day after Christmas the same year, Abby’s cancer returned and she tragically died in May 2016.

Abby's Heroes aims to support children and their families, including bereaved families, who come under the care of the cancer wards at Southampton General Hospital.

As one of the small charities Global's Make Some Noise supports, Sally came by the studio to meet Jamie and Amanda, along with The Giles Family who have been helped by Abby’s Heroes.

Abby's Heroes were presented with a cheque for £55,584. Picture: Heart

Freddy Giles was 11 when he was diagnosed with AML (Acute Myeloid Leukaemia) in July last year.

His treatment required him to spend six-week sessions at the hospital and with COVID, he couldn’t have any visitors.

The first thing Abby’s Heroes did was send Freddy and his younger brother Stan, seven, some Lego so they could Facetime each other as they built their toys.

Abby’s Heroes also provided mum Laura and dad Ross with the equivalent of two months wages and a little extra to cover the added expense of buying hospital food.

Opening up about the support she received, Laura told Jamie and Amanda: “They used to feed us on a Tuesday with snacks.

“Saturday nights Freddy had pizza nights with his dad and they helped with costs, wages and were always there if you needed a little bit of assistance or help.”

After we asked our amazing listeners to donate to Global’s Make Some Noise, Jamie and Amanda were able to present Abby’s Heroes with an incredible £27,792.

Not stopping there, GMSN added to this and Heart were able to hand over a cheque for a whopping £55,584.

With that extra money, Abby’s Heroes will now be able to fund two years of their first ever Family Support Worker, providing vital emotional and practical support to families affected by cancer in Southampton hospital.

Sally said: “That’s bonkers, when you support small local charities it has such a big impact, it will go towards funding this role.”

You can watch the full video in the player above.