Friendship is at the heart of a fundraising challenge organised by a young Stevenage woman who has raised £5,000 for the charity that helped her in her darkest days as a teenager battling leukaemia.
Twenty-two-year-old Saffron Foley was joined by 10 of her closest friends on Saturday (January 4th) for the 22km Seven Sisters Cliffs Walk along the English Channel coast, in aid of Molly Ollys.
The Warwickshire-based children’s charity had gifted Saffron a mini iPad at the age of 13, during her stay in Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge, whilst undergoing intensive chemotherapy.
Saffron recalls: “The hospital told us about Molly Ollys because I think quite a few children there had received wishes from them. It provided a distraction from what I was going through. It was the first time that I’d laughed or felt like I was normal again since I’d been diagnosed. It made a real difference.”
Saffron, who has been in remission for eight years, has now decided she is keen to give back, but wanted to do so surrounded by all the friends who supported her throughout her journey – most of whom were fellow students at John Henry Newman School in Stevenage.
She said: “I can’t imagine having gone through my illness without such a big support system. My friends understood, they never pressured me to talk about it. They saw how painful it was for me to talk but would always make sure that I knew they were there if I needed them.
“They’d always be very compassionate, but never make me feel different, which I think was really, really important to me. I just wanted to feel normal. I didn’t want anyone to make an unnecessary fuss of me. And they’d always come to visit me in hospital.
It felt right to do this challenge alongside those people.”
All 11 girls, who now hail mainly from Stevenage and Hitchin, as well as Hatfield and London, each overcame personal challenges to complete the walk in six-and-a-half hours, including an unanticipated diversion that extended the route.
“During the walk there’s a part where you have to cross a beach but, despite doing our advance checks, when we got there the tide was in so we had to do a huge hour-and-a-half detour which ended up with us covered in mud. Because of this we didn’t stop at all really as we were conscious of making sure that we that we got back before dark. We had about five minutes to eat so grabbed a quick Meal Deal halfway,” said Saffron.
“There were a few times where we had to go very close to the cliff edge, at one point climbing just one metre from the edge so that was a bit daunting because quite a lot of us are scared of heights. But I we were determined we just didn’t let it affect us.
“The hills were a lot steeper than we expected too, including one hill where we were all on our hands and knees climbing and the winds were really strong. But it was also exhilarating. We were supporting each other. All of us at some point had some difficulty but we helped each other through.”
Molly Ollys was established in 2011 by Rachel and Tim Ollerenshaw, from Warwick, following the death of their eight-year-old daughter Molly from a rare kidney cancer.
The charity works to support children with terminal or life-limiting illnesses and their families and help with their emotional wellbeing. As well as providing wishes, they donate therapeutic toys and books to both children directly and to hospitals throughout the UK.
The therapeutic toy lion called Olly The Brave has his own Hickman line and a detachable mane which helps to explain and normalise the effects of chemotherapy. These form part of an Olly The Brave pack that has now been handed out to more than 70 hospitals or health centres, along with a set of books from the charity’s exclusive Olly The Brave series.
Despite missing 10 months of schooling through her illness, Saffron worked incredibly hard to achieve A and A* grades in all ger GCSEs and went on to graduate from The London School of Economics with a Law degree. She is now preparing to head back to university to study a Masters as she works towards her dream of becoming a solicitor.
She added: “Prior to this fundraising I wouldn’t have done anything like this because I wouldn’t want to bring up that part of my life, I wouldn’t want to talk about it again. But it has also turned out to be quite a healing experience and has closed the chapter for me as in it’s helped me come to terms with what happened.
“I thought I’d like to do something in order to give back to the charity that helped me and create something positive out of a negative situation but also to acknowledge what I’ve been through.
“We’d now love to make this an annual challenge.”
More donations to Saffron’s JustGiving page are welcome via: https://www.justgiving.com/page/saffron-foley-1731952285691
