A truly brave, funny and courageous father, husband, son and friend to so many. 

On 16 July 2019 Ben died of bowel cancer, after living courageously and vibrantly with it since January. For the last 5 weeks of his life we were truly blessed to have been at Leckhampton Court Hospice. A magical and inspirational place, where Ben went to live; where we could be a family, laugh and have fun …. and so much fun was had! Those memories are priceless and we cannot thank all there enough for enabling us to have all that time together. 

Through his illness Ben taught me to accept those things we can’t control. To find the positive in any situation. I am in awe of his strength, courage and bravery. How even at the hardest time in his life he had the energy to always ask of others first and be polite to everyone. Ben is quite simply unique and to those closest to him a total hero, especially as he is the only man I know to wear flip flops and shorts in December.

So just as Ben has always done we want to continue to think of others and find the positive. When I spoke to Ben about fundraising he said 'babe lets go big or go home!'. So we started working with family and friends to try and raise at least £17,000. This is roughly what it would have cost to provide our family with the exceptional specialist care and support during the final weeks of Ben's life. We have been so overwhelmed by the support shown and reached this target just 13 weeks after his death.

So now in true Sykes style we are going even bigger! We have now raised over £50,000 and are going to keep on going. In memory of Ben our aim is to simply ensure we can help as many families as possible to have the same time to create their own priceless memories. 

Through the fundraising we also want to share all positives from our situation. We want to share how amazing the hospice is, to share how much happiness, love and laughter can be found there, to share our experience in the hope it helps a family like ours in the future and to share my thanks for everything the hospice gave my family.

To make his wish a reality his family and friends will be taking on all sorts of challenges from walking to running to jumping. And to truly honour him I am sure there will also be lots of laughing, eating and drinking along the way...probably in flips flops and shorts! Help us in any way you can and you will have our eternal thanks. 

To put into perspective how valuable your donations are, here's some running costs for the hospice. Please use these as your motives behind a donation as every penny really does count.
* £19 pays for one hour hospice care
* £140 pays for the cost of a nurse for a day
* £150 pays for a working bag with all the kit in for a Hospice at home nurse
* £500 pays for a bed for a day of inpatient care
* £3000 could pay for a hospice nurse for a month

So dig deep and thank you so much for your support.

Love Sam and Erin x