John Eastwood hospice in memory of my mum Caril Reid

Hello, and thank you for taking the time to read my story.

This story is about one amazing women. One extraordinary, brave and courageous woman. This woman was an amazing carer for majority of her life. An outstanding mum and grandma.

This story takes you on our journey of what the last 8 months have been like for us as a family, which will bring me to tell you why I’m taking on this fund raiser.

In 2018, Mum nearly lost her life to phumondia this caused huge scaring to her right lung. Since then, Mums been subject to a new programme which scans her lungs annually. In December 2022, she had a scan that was all clear. 1 year later she had a scan in December 2023, but was subsequently sent a letter to attend the hospital on her birthday 8th January 2024. We as you can appreciate, feared the worst but expected the best. However, that dreaded day came and we got given the dreaded news that we didn’t want. Mum had an 8cm growth on her right lung which has grown from the scar tissue weak spot.

We was devastated, who in the right mind wants to ever hear them words; especially for your mum. However, the fight wasn’t over just yet. By the time the hospital had done all the investigations to determine which cancer it was. Her treatment didn’t start until April. We had scheduled treatment every 2 weeks. Well as you can expect, me and my sister was over the moon that treatment had started so the memories could begin… Well so we thought. Little did we know that the next 2 months were going to bring so much heartache. As with chemo, there’s risks and one of the risks was immune system. The treatment although helping mum live longer, had side effects that we didn’t expect. Mum never suffered from anxiety before, but she became trapped in her own home mentally. The treatment was killing her mind. Eventually, mum broke down. This is when she made the choice not to continue with the treatment. It wasn’t giving her quality of life; it was mentally killing her instead. I can’t explain to you how hard it was to accept this, but me and my sister knew deep down inside arguing with mum to continue the treatment wasn’t what she would want. The next couple of months were goo. We planned stuff and went on family trips to make memories the best we could once her immune system had returned. We got just over a month before she started to decline. Eventually going from a bungalow to in and out of hospital for weeks on end to then a care home. Which was hard for mum to be in a place in which she worked majority of her life. Did make us laugh though as she tried to help the residents of the home too :-) but made her sad when she realised, she couldn’t anymore.

She only had a short stay in the home. 2 weeks in fact, before she was admitted again to the hospital as she'd gone downhill again. Her next stop was John Eastwood Hospice. Now what can I say about this place. Absolutely outstanding. They got her pain meds sorted, once mum had stopped being so stubborn trying to survive without any meds to not be a burden on any of the staff. She was only in this place for 4 days but since having mental issues due to the cancer she never felt more at peace till she was in here. They were amazing, beautiful people who put her as ease constantly.

The day came in which she was expected to go. They called us in good time and we was able to be with her during her passing. Even with me and my sister, this amazing place couldn’t do enough for her. The nurse on day shift Louise gave us memory bears, asked if we wanted handprints doing and gave us memory hearts. This made what we were going though that little bit more comforting. They couldn’t do enough for me and my sister while we were by my mums bed side for her final day even after her passing.

This blew my mind that they offer all this without ever expecting anything in return. This got me thinking, what could i do to raise money?

On the 14 June 2025, I will be taking on a rat race event called ‘The Wall’

https://www.ratrace.com/the-wall-ultramarathon

This event is 70miles of Hadrian’s wall. I plan to run as much as i can and walk the remainder. The challenge is designed to be ran or walked for the entire distance.

If you feel you are able to donate anything towards this cause, then I and the John Eastwood Hospice would be really grateful for anything you can give.