Maddie’s Birthday & Beyond

We are fundraising for Maddie because she has spent her life nurturing others, now it’s her turn to be nurtured.

Funding goes directly to Maddie. It will cover costs for wellbeing, paying bills or anything she needs.

Most of you visiting this page will already know who Maddie McMahon is and, indeed, how wonderful she is and how many lives she's touched.

But for those who don't - I'm going to attempt to let you know just how incredible this woman is, though I know I will struggle to find the words to do her justice. 

Maddie has been a doula and breastfeeding counsellor for 20 years and founded Developing Doulas in 2007. Since then she has seen hundreds of women come through her doors and leave nurtured, supported, empowered doulas full of passion and knowledge. Those doulas go out into the world and spread the healing and love that she has gifted them wherever they go. 

She has held hundreds of mothers while they bring new life into the world. She has supported thousands of women to breastfeed. She built a strong sisterhood, a community, that we are all grateful for every day. She's founded and continues to make a massive contribution to two charities. She's written two (amazing) books and countless articles. She co-founded a national campaign that is changing the face of the UK maternity crisis. 

Her legacy is, quite simply, astounding.

Whilst doing all this, she also managed to be a fabulous wife to Chris and raise three overwhelmingly awesome humans, Sean, Daniel and Libby, and I'm sure they'd tell you that she's exactly the kind of mother that we all aspire to be. I know whenever I am having a parenting crisis I always just think 'What would Maddie do?'. It's easy to see what a fantastic job of mothering she does, just by witnessing how phenomenal her children are and the beautiful relationship she shares with them.

Despite all this, you'd be hard pushed to find a person more humble than Maddie. She really has absolutely no idea of how magnificent she is. She is the most marvellous friend and beautiful soul - supportive, kind, insightful - and utterly hilarious!

In May 2020, our community was shaken by the news that Maddie had been diagnosed with a very rare form of cancer called ocular melanoma. She had a tumour in her eye, that required radiotherapy and an operation where they stitched a radioactive plaque to her eye.

We all knew how scared she was, but she never gave up a day in her life and she handled the entire ordeal with immense bravery and unbelievable strength. As always, she took probably the most harrowing experience of her life and used it to help others.

Ever since Maddie's operation, every time they check the tumour, it has shrunk. One of the risk factors for this particular type of cancer is that it can spread to your liver, so Maddie has been having regular scans - which have all been coming back clear - so we really thought we were out of the woods!

Last week, Maddie received the results from her most recent MRI scan, which revealed two lesions on her liver.

She is having a biopsy on the 16th to confirm what the consultant has said is more than likely - that her cancer has spread.

If that's the case, she will be looking at weekly chemotherapy. When this type of cancer spreads to the liver, it's incredibly serious and she is going to have a monumental fight on her hands. But we're not giving up and will be fighting right alongside her every step of the way!

It's also Maddie's birthday tomorrow - so we'd like to raise some funds to show her how much we love her and try to bring her some joy at this time, amongst all the pain.  

We are so grateful for any contribution you can make - and why not drop Maddie a note to let her know what she means to you? xxx

Maddie - don't you dare spend a single penny on another human being . . . this is all for you! More elephants. You deserve them. Live, darling xxx