This Sunday, George Fox should have celebrated his 18th birthday. Instead, his parents Louise and Matt, and siblings, Jamie and Isabella, are marking the occasion without their much-loved son and brother, following his death from an aggressive brain tumour in April 2022, aged just 13.
Louise has penned a heartfelt letter to her son, with everything she wishes she could tell him on this milestone day.
Dear George,
Never in a million years did we think that we would be writing this for your 18th, and that you would not physically be here with us. We imagined we’d be having a party, Dad would be taking you for your first official pint, and about how excited you would be to be reaching your special birthday.
We want to start by telling you how we continue to be so proud of you every single day. Not a day passes when you are not still part of our lives and our family. You are still our everything.
It’s 1,678 days since we’ve been able to hold your hand and tell you how much we love you. We know that you know.
Our biggest fear is that people would move on and forget you, but our beautiful boy, you are still so loved and remembered, and people want to make a difference in your honour.
We can only imagine the young man you would have become. We know you’d still be kind, brave and determined, and would be making us proud every single second of every day.
We know you’d still love Arsenal, and we so wished you had been there with us to see them win the League this year. Would you still love Lego and capybaras? Would you have passed your driving test by now? Issy always talks about how you would be taking her to McDonalds once you had, just the two of you.
Issy did so well in her GCSEs, and we know if you’d been here you would have been doing all of the tutoring for her, just like you did in lockdown. Jamie is now a fully qualified plumbing and heating engineer. We know you are cheering them both on and are so proud of them, just as we are.
We imagine that you and Jamie would be like best mates now, as well as brothers, and we know you and Issy would still be like twins, never one without the other.
We’ve had new babies arrive in the family: your little cousin Ivy Georgie, and just a few weeks ago, your baby cousin Florence. We know family meant more than ANYTHING else to you, we so wish you were here to meet them. Our friends have even called their beautiful baby boy Rue Luca George, in your memory.
We include you in everything we do as a family. It’s just in a different way now.
Your friends tell us they still miss you. They are now all getting George tattoos and doing charity fundraising in your honour, and we know you’ll be so missed as they celebrate their own 18ths. They still say you are the funniest person they ever met.
We think around 60 people have got your tattoo on their wrist – your little GG with the ‘never give up’ sign. We always laugh that we look like a cult. Well, I guess we are – we are the Gorgeous George cult.
And so much has been done in your name.
Our village has red ribbons on the lamp posts, and our friends have even had a street named after you. Plus your friends and family have raised more than £178,000 in your honour for Brain Tumour Research, we added to that recently as we held a big 18th party for you. 270 people booked tickets – can you believe that? We did a speech, Dad did a toast for you and all of your best friends came along. That’s how loved you still are George. You are still having a HUGE impact. We wish you had been there.
We’ve met lots of lovely new friends because of you George… people we know you would absolutely adore. We wish we didn’t have to know them for the reason that we do, but they’ve really helped us on our journey.
Some of these friends are Angel families too, and we truly hope with all our hearts that you’ve met their gorgeous children.
We are going to make sure that over your birthday everyone remembers you for the boy you are, not were, because you are still here… full of kindness, a love of learning, mischief, and the funniest boy ever. You are still making us laugh when we remember the things you said to us.
You may not have been there for all of our lives, but we got to be there for all of yours, and for that we will be eternally grateful.
Happy 18th birthday, our Gorgeous George.
All our love, always, love you more than life son.
Mum and Dad
Our thoughts are with Louise, Matt, Jamie and Issy, and all George’s loved ones, as they mark his birthday this weekend.
If you would like to donate in George’s memory, please click here and state your reason as “George Fox”. Just £10 could help provide researchers with the tools to investigates how to stop paediatric brain tumours growing.
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