11yo Joshua and 12yo Gabriel are taking part in The Big Challenge, which is an enterprise competition open to Y7-Y9 students in Sheffield. Each team has the opportunity to design and grow a business from a £25 start up loan, and keep the profits.

They have chosen to make upcycled button decorations entirely from donated items, but instead of keeping the profits, they want to donate them ALL to PACT, who continue to support us and families like ours, with children affected with cancers and haematological disorders.

In October 2021, Gabriel was diagnosed with very severe aplastic anaemia (VSAA), a bone marrow failure condition whereby his body stopped producing red blood cells; without the life-saving bone marrow transplant he had in Decemebr of the same year, he likely wouldn't have seen his 9th birthday. Gabriel is still under several specialties at Sheffield Children's Hospital (SCH), remains immunocompromised, and endures weekly transfusions of ScIg to keep him alive.

During our time on and off Haem/Onc Ward 6, the three wonderful ladies at PACT brought me my breakfast and lunch when I was unable to leave Gabriel’s bedside; they brought the children sweet treats when sometimes all they could do was suck on a square of chocolate through the nausea and sickness; they brought Gabriel a sack of Christmas presents when he had to spend Christmas 2021 having chemotherapy, and birthday presents for us both when we had to spend our birthdays there; they provide days out for families who otherwise are trapped in their new daily routines of hospital visits, treatments, therapies, medicines, surgeries, doctors, appointments etc etc; they provide holidays in their static caravans, enabling families to feel “normal” for a few days; they provide a home from home for families to stay in so that they can be closer to their children.

We are lucky enough to be spending Christmas 2025 in our own hone and our own beds, surrounded by our family and friends, but this will not be the case for some children who will be spending it, as we once did, on Ward 6 in isolation. All of the money the boys raise will be going straight to PACT who will use it to make this Christmas time a little bit more bearable for those children and their families who will be enduring unimaginable times right now.