George and the Giant Pledge

On January 3rd 2017 our son George was diagnosed with cancer. A PNET soft tissue Ewing's Sarcoma.
This is his story and our Giant Pledge to help beat childhood cancer so no other child has to suffer in this way.

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”We decided to set up ‘George and the Giant Pledge’ because no child should ever have to have their childhood taken from them in this terrible way.
VickiGeorge's Mum

On 3 January 2017 Vicki and James Woodall (Woody) received the news that’s every parent’s worst nightmare. They were told by doctors at The Royal Marsden Hospital that a lump they’d found on their then four-year-old son’s back was in fact cancer, a rare PNET soft tissue Ewing’s Sarcoma.

From being a perfectly healthy and happy little boy George and the Woodall family’s lives changed overnight. Over the course of 2017 he endured 14 rounds of chemo, had part of his spine removed during 10 hours of complex surgery and received proton therapy in the USA thanks to the NHS.

Vicki and Woody are trying to make the best of their bad situation and, despite navigating George’s difficult cancer journey, supporting his older brother and trying to maintain some semblance of family life, they pledged to raise £1,000,000 to help beat childhood cancer.

“Seeing all those young children with no hair and tubes coming out of them on our first visit to The Royal Marsden was truly heartbreaking. Yet the thing that struck us the most was how many of those kids had a smile on their face. It was then that we decided to set up ‘George and the Giant Pledge’, because no child should ever have to have their childhood taken from them in this terrible way.”

Help team George and the Giant Pledge raise vital funds for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity

None of the money raised is directly for George, your donations will go 100% to the children’s team at The Royal Marsden Hospital to help fund much needed research into children’s cancer as well as help The Royal Marsden team continue the outstanding work they’re doing for children and families affected by cancer.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3iOmhIIc_s

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Our Progress

George and the Giant Pledge

On a day where the UK struggles to come to terms with the fact we've now had over 100,000 deaths following the outbreak of COVID-19 in March last year (the worst figures in Europe and the worst in the world if you look at it per capita 😳) it almost feels wrong for me to go on to say that we felt a huge wave of relief, elation as well as exhaustion in our house today after being told George's cancer free news yesterday!

...it might well shock you to know that the most overwhelming feeling out of those three was actually exhaustion. Of course we're utterly over the moon, with the alternative outcome just being unthinkable, but that doesn't mean we didn't go there in our minds with this new lump dragging up so many dark thoughts from what we've seen happen to other oncology families as well as based on our own previous childhood cancer experience.

Tonight the brilliant Hurrah For Gin summed it up perfectly...only for me I know that work will 'have to give' for a few more weeks as life is utterly bonkers at the moment, cancer scares or otherwise! Tonight's picture shows George tucking into a tub of Marks and Spencer's Rocky Road, two words which could ironically also perfectly describe our lives following his brush with cancer let alone all of us currently living in a global pandemic! That bookmarked with pictures also taken from this very day, both at the start and end of George's cancer treatment, reminds us how far we've come but equally why life can still feel so fragile.

One thing's for sure, we've more than felt your love and can't begin to tell you how much we appreciate it! ❤️ ...things for all of us may feel uncertain and wobbly right now but here's to each of us finding our own balance and manageable boundaries to navigate through these crazy times that are so surreal and are equally unthinkable.

Between us we've got this.

#thebigpush
#aimhighstaypositive
#giantpledge

Donate or join the Giant Pledge team with your own fundraising event in 2021 at https://giantpledge.com/team

Buy one of our 'Tackle Childhood Cancer' tees or pick up your superhero cape in honour of the doctors, nurses and super brave cancer kids at http://giantpledge.com/shop

Sing along & share our charity 'Do a Big Poo' song, https://youtu.be/U3iOmhIIc_s or buy it here, https://giantpledge.com/buy

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/georgeandthegiantpledge
On Twitter: https://twitter.com/giantpledge
And on Instagram: https://instagram.com/giantpledge

Or for help with any event you may be thinking of email Lydia.Clark2@rmh.nhs.uk and cc us at GeorgeandtheGiantPledge@gmail.com

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