Tommy the Warrior

Hi, we’re Gemma & Jen. Two football Mums who met through our boys attending the amazing ‘Dans dribblers’.

Anyone local to Royton, Shaw, Middleton and Rochdale will be familiar with Dan and how much of an impact Dan has on all the kids he coaches.

Dan is simply THE best coach, a positive role model who has an impact on all of his dribblers. He has an ability to make each of his dribblers feel special, remembering little details that so many of us couldn’t. Dan coaches 100+ Kids a week, and does it all with the upmost enthusiasm and encouragement.

He gives so much to the community and asks for nothing in return.

Dan is much more than a football coach, he’s a husband and Dad to three wonderful boys, Louie, Reggie and Tommy.

Dan and his wife Charlie have recently been given the heartbreaking news that their youngest beautiful boy, Tommy has Leukaemia.

As a football community we are all devastated to hear what Tommy and the Squibb’s family are going through.

Naturally, Dan and Charlie priority is being by Tommys side whilst comforting and guiding Louie and Reggie.

Dans dedication and brilliant coaching is what pays his bills, however with Tommys recent diagnosis, Dan has had to put on hold all of his upcoming football sessions, therefore resulting in him receiving no income!

Being self employed, Dan doesn’t get any months full paid time to spend with his family. Dan still has the same bills and expenditure each month.

Tommys mum Charlie is a primary school teacher who has worked in many schools around Oldham and Rochdale. She started a new job at Belfield primary on the day of Tommys shock diagnosis, which adds to the financial uncertainty as unfortunately she is not eligible for ‘sick’ pay.

As a community, we want to do all we can to help Dan, Charlie and the boys financially, so they can focus all their attention on Tommy.

Anything you can donate will mean so much to coach Dan and his family.

Below is Dan and Charlie’s story in their words…….

In late August 2023 we returned from a family holding in France with a lethargic Tommy, aged 3. When on holiday we put it down to the heat but with a pin prick rash and then going off his food once we had returned we took him to the docs to get checked over. On Sept 4th we got the devastating news that Tommy had Acute Myeloid leukaemia! Tommy has Down Syndrome so although VERY worrying we were told prognosis tends to be good with 90% of people with DS being cured after chemo.

We moved into Manchester Children’s hospital and our journey of chemo began. The first round went well, not as well as they’d hoped but had reduced cancer cells from 62% to 0.9% so we believed he was in remission and was on the right path. After round 2 however his cells went up to 5% and after round 3 his cancer cells were 72%! At this point we were given the news it was highly likely to be his last Christmas and that anything from this point would be prolonging life not curing. As a family we were utterly devastated and we had to tell our 2 older sons Louie, 10 and Reggie 7 that their brother was very likely to die. Words we never thought or wanted to come out of our mouths.

Tommy has just finished round 4 of extra strong chemo and now it’s a waiting game to see if a miracle has occurred. If his cancer cells have reduced drastically he gets to try a new drug that doesn’t cure but keeps cancer cells at bay. If the chemo hasn’t worked we have a few weeks left with our EXTRA special little man.

This Go Fund Me page, set up by 2 Dan’s Dribbler mums, is helping us financially and also enables us to donate to the numerous charities that we have been introduced to during this journey.

Keep Tommy in your thoughts ❤️