This Thursday 28th November, the family of Aaron Wharton should be enjoying all the fun of celebrating his ninth birthday with him. Instead, they are encouraging people to wear purple in his memory and make a donation to Aaron’s Army, a Fundraising Group dedicated to raising money for the charity to help find a cure.
Southdown School in Buckley, North East Wales, where Aaron was a pupil, is supporting the ‘Wear it Purple for Aaron’ initiative with his friends remembering the youngster, who was always “so full of life” on his birthday. We’re grateful to Southdown School for their support for Wear A Hat Day too.
Aaron was diagnosed with a grade 3 anaplastic ependymoma in April 2020, aged four, but despite undergoing surgery multiple times, as well as proton beam therapy and chemotherapy, nothing could save Aaron and his parents, Nicola and Lee (pictured top with Aaron), lost their only child on Easter Sunday 2023.
It’s a difficult time for Aaron’s family as, apart from his birthday, two years ago, Aaron (pictured below with his best friend Luna) spent the majority of Christmas and New Year as an inpatient at Wrexham Maelor Hospital because of infections whilst on chemotherapy.
Nicola said: “The staff were nothing short of amazing, knowing it would be his last Christmas, and literally showered him with gifts and so much love. We wanted to give something back, so have also started a campaign to request donations of gifts that we can send to the hospital for any children that end up on the children’s ward over Christmas.”
Aaron and his family will be very much in our thoughts on Thursday.
You can make a donation to Aaron’s Army to help support vital research to help bring an end to brain tumours killing more children than any other cancer.
Related reading:
- Aaron’s story
- School children don hats in memory of Aaron
- ‘Our son died of a brain tumour only 10 days after his last day at school’ Wales Online
Published Monday, 25th November 2024