Sophie’s Legacy is a charity set up in memory of a remarkable young girl who touched so many lives.
Sophie was diagnosed with cancer (rhabdomyosarcoma) in September 2020 aged 9. She went through major surgery to try and remove the 12cm tumour in her abdomen. Then she endured 9 rounds of aggressive chemotherapy and 31 sessions of radiotherapy. Sophie was on maintenance chemotherapy for only 8 weeks when she relapsed. Sadly the treatment didn’t work and she died on 18th September 2021 aged 10.
During her treatment Sophie wanted to help others. She started painting ceramics in hospital to make money to buy toys and activities for children to do whilst in hospital, raising an impressive £6000 in the process! She also couldn’t understand why they wouldn’t give the parent that stays anything to eat or drink. She used to say “Mum, you have no choice but to be here, why are they not feeding you?”. Shockingly, only 15% of hospitals in the country feed parents in hospital.
Sophie knew she was dying and wanted to make the most of the time she had left. She wrote a bucket list two months before she died, detailing the work she wanted the charity to continue in her memory.
These are the changes Sophie wanted:
1. Parents to be fed whilst in hospital with their child.
2. A play specialist in hospital 7 days a week
3. Improvements to children’s hospital food
4. An increase in childhood cancer funding
5. Health professionals training on childhood cancer
As a charity, Sophie’s Legacy has achieved so much in a short space of time. They provide snack and toiletry boxes in the parent rooms on children’s wards, currently covering Portsmouth, Southampton, Basingstoke, Winchester, Chichester, Guildford and Salisbury Hospital with more hospitals coming on board every week. In Portsmouth and Southampton hospitals alone they cover no fewer than 17 children’s wards, and are giving hundreds of parents access to food and drink every single week.
The charity also provides transport such as taxis and vouchers for petrol, fund art therapy in hospitals, provides clothes for parents and children, and delivers pizzas every Saturday night to every parent staying in Portsmouth hospital.
Working with the government and NHS, Sophie’s Legacy secured the first ever debate in the House of Commons on childhood cancer in April 2022 and won’t stop until changes are made and Sophie’s wishes are completed.
None of their work is achievable without donations. Every penny goes on supporting families in hospital, and you can donate some – or all – of the profits from your car when you scrap your vehicle with Scrap Car Comparison. For more information on how donations through our scheme works, you can read our FAQs on the subject here.
