Harley Firminger, 30, and her son Elliott Hole decided to give back to the local children’s hospitals by dropping off hundreds of gifts and advent calendars to keep sick kids entertained.
The mum-of-four from Orpington, Kent, first started bringing advent calendars to local hospitals last year after seeing a friend do the same.
This year, she decided to go up a level and set up an Amazon Wishlist for members of the community to buy gifts of – which ended up with 346 items purchased.
Then, helped by her family including children Bligh, seven, Louis, two, Sadie, nine months, and Elliott, they loaded the gifts into “really good party bags”.
Presents included lots of sweets and chocolate, games, bubbles, stickers, stationery, and many more treats.
The family then dropped them off in crates at three local hospitals: the Royal Marsden in Sutton, Kings College in London, and Princess Royal University Hospital (PRUH) in Farnborough.
Harley, who is a hairdresser by trade, said: “From what I have experienced, you are stuck in a room and unable to leave because of viruses and it gets very boring.
“When I did the calendars last year my son was admitted in December, so he was given one. He ripped it open, and all the chocolates were gone in less than five minutes. The bags will hopefully occupy them a bit longer.
“The reception from the people I dropped them off to was brilliant. The nurses were all amazed by how much there was.
“We wheeled in this huge crate of presents and the reception was amazing.
“I stopped counting when we got to 400 but I would say in total we did about 440, as well as over 100 calendars.
“They were really good, when my kids were making them, I checked if they would be happy getting them and if they weren’t we added more.”
Harley first noticed something was wrong with Elliott in January 2022, when he had started limping slightly.
Her and Elliott’s father Geoff Hole immediately took him to PRUH where some blood tests were done, and three days later the family were told he had Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Elliott then got started on his three-year and three-month treatment plan which is set to finish in March 2025.
The five-stage treatment plan entails daily chemotherapy, and receiving a lumbar puncture to check his spinal fluid for cancer cells every three months.
Harley added: “He has tolerated treatment really well; he powered through it.
“I sometimes forget what we have been through. When I hear other families’ stories, I think ‘Wow that’s awful’ then I remember that we are that family too.
“When he was first diagnosed, we basically lived between Kings, Marsden, and Darent Valley Hospital for the first four months.
“I need to be on hold for Elliott at all times because if his temperature spikes we need to get him to Kings within the hour.
“He is a very kind little boy. He is quite outgoing. Considering everything that he has been through you would never think that anything was ever up. He is quite strong-willed.”
Harley says that receiving a gift bag like this would have meant a lot to Elliott and herself at the peak of his treatment.
She said: “The kids love it because it is basically a really good party bag.
“But from a parent’s point of view, in that time when you are vulnerable looking at your baby and not knowing what is going to happen- knowing that people have thought about you is so important.
“It is nice to know that people are with you, standing alongside you.
“The community have been amazing. It was heartwarming to see how many people got involved.”
As Elliott approaches the end of his treatment, he is beginning to take part in more hobbies and has just started playing football.
One of his favourite movies is The Greatest Showman and he is set to go see the theatre show Come Alive the day before he finishes his treatment as a celebration.
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Harley says although she is thrilled that her son is finishing treatment, she is quite scared to lose the support of all the doctors who are constantly doing checks.
She said: “It is a milestone that obviously not all children get to reach. But I am more concerned for him finishing treatment than I was for him starting- because our safety net of people will disappear.”
Donate to Elliott’s family here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-elliot-and-his-family-beat-luekemia
