Hi my name is Sam Franklin and just over a year ago my wife Zoe and I lost our beautiful 2 and a half year old son Axel to a rare and aggressive form of Cancer. Our world ended and our reason for living had gone.

While the support we received during his treatment and the hospice care we then went to were absolutely outstanding the support for both grieving parents and those with seriously or terminally ill children is massively underfunded or does not exist at all.

In the name of and in memory of our wonderful little boy Axel (Our Axel Bear) We want to build “Bears Rest” to provide free (Adult only) respite accommodation to grieving parents and parents with seriously ill children, in a peaceful rural location, giving them peace, space and time away from the world.

It would also be our aim through continuous fund raising and a charitable foundation (In Axels name) to provide funding for and access to grief counselling and mental health services during their stay as well as in the wider local community, whilst also working alongside and linking up with local hospice and health care services.

Although we appreciated the sentiment, following the death of our son were given a week at a holiday complex filled with happy families and very little else (grief counselling funding is low and had it not been for the financial help of friends it would have stopped before it started). We don’t want others to find themselves suffering and without help when they devastatingly find themselves in the same place we did.

There should be somewhere they can go and someone they can talk to that not only has an understanding of their unimaginable and unique situation but can also point them towards the right services and resources that they will need when the unthinkable does happen.

We need to raise 68k for the purchase of the land and to begin work as well as to allow the fundraising to roll forwards.

We and other parents like us would massively appreciate anything that you could give. Please get in contact if you are interested in fundraising or have any questions.

Many thanks for taking the time to read this and for anything you could donate.