Be More Frank

A wonderful evening spent in the company of some incredible people. Thank you, BBC Hereford & Worcester Eddie, Emma & Lake thought it was a blast! Tammy Gooding Elliott Webb West Midlands Safari Park Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust #MakeADifferenceAward #childhoodcancer #charity #b2b #HMBiz #kidsgetcancertoo

We have been gifted a pair of tickets to the Johnny Cash Roadshow this Sat 14th at The Courtyard Hereford. A lovely supporter bought them but cannot use them. Would anybody like them in exchange for a donation to #BeMoreFrank? ❤️ #JohnnyCash #JohnnyCashRoadshow #CourtyardHereford

We have a table of 10 on Saturday 14th December to sell for charidee at this hugely popular annual Hereford Chrimbo party venue. We’re gonna just come out with it… Christmas is coming. (Sorry to those of you for whom the ‘C’ word must not be uttered this early in the year, scroll on). The amazing fantastic Martha at Redbank Events & Venue Hire has put her profit where her heart is and gifted us this bad boy at a reduced cost so our fund can have a little Chrimbo bonus. Legend. It’s £65 per person, they’re infamously popular & sell out every year. Obviously Saturday is the most popular night. If you want more tables the chances are we can sweet talk the team, to secure it simply DM us here or [email protected] (for this one only don’t book via the venue plzzz). #childhoodcancer #childhoodcancersupport #cancersucks #kidsgetcancertoo #b2b #cancercharity #hmbiz

More 90 day workplace challenge results. The fabulous River Wye Activity Centre Glasbury raised £487.50! They used the initial £50 to pay for a band, which thry asked the audience to donate for. They ran a raffle along side it, held a few music events and raffles over the summer months, the staff donated their tips and they ran a very simple & very effective chips for charity, donating the profit from each potion of chips sold in the cafe! Thank you so much to the team, fablus work we aww extremely grateful ❤️ #BeMoreFrank #TeamFRANK #childhoodcancer #childhoodcancersupport #cancersucks #kidsgetcancertoo #b2b #cancercharity

Number 3 challenge of the yesterday, Terry also completed his skydive! Between the 3 events yesterday £2322 was raised. How amazing is that!! Well I’ll tell you, on what has been a tough week otherwise it’s totally fantastic. Thank you with all our hearts to Team Benson for their triathlon, Terry & Amy for their skydives, Tom & Jo at First In Events, and everybody at UK Parachuting. They’ve shown such amazingness. Yes that IS a word. #BeMoreBloodyFrank

Awesome challenge #2 of the day. Amy did her skydive!! 🪂 Amy’s words to me yesterday were that she was “absolutely sh**ting” herself. She did amazingly well and loved every moment… once the ‘chute opened 🙌 https://lnkd.in/ecYhu6Fv #skydive #charityskydive #BeMoreFrank #childhoodcancer #kidsgetcancertoo

Morning campers! Today’s a Good Day for #BeMoreFrank as we have 3 awesome challenges occurrin’ (say that in Nessa’s voice in your head, makes it fun). Numero Uno is the Benson’s ‘Try’athlon - see what they did there? 😁 Daddy Benson Paul is off at 08:30 with his big swim. He says he’s scared, we say he’ll smash it. Eldest child, AKA the golden child Stacey then cycles 39km - she’s possibly more terrified than Paul but he may disagree. Then Hugo, youngest son with youth on his side will breeze the 10km run (no pressure Hugo but we’ve set you up for greatness). https://lnkd.in/eZDAhHZC Fun fact, when Frank was about 3 he named the goldfish ‘Paul the Chef’ ❤️ WE LOVE YOU, BENSONS. #charitytriathlon #BeMoreFrank #childhoodcancer #kidsgetcancertoo

Our first workplace challenge results are in! The amazing Burford House Garden Centre turned £50 into £305 in 90 days. Nice work, Paul & co ❤️🙌 They planted up 3 different seasonal planters which customers then bid for in a silent auction. Here’s Paul, GM & James, Head Gardener, along with the lucky winner of the barbecue planter. Thank you so very much to the team ❤️🩹 #workplacechallenge #BeMoreFrank #childhoodcancer #kidsgetcancertoo

WHAT. IS. BE. MORE. FRANK? Who are we and what do we do? We are a named charity fund established in 2021 by Frank's parents Emma Cleal & Eddie Cleal following Frank's death aged 13 from a rare bone cancer. We provide grants to the family of every single child with cancer in Herefordshire, Powys & 4 further surrounding counties. The grants are not means tested and are as easy to access as we can possibly make them. We believe it's a vital help to families during their darkest months & years. Here is Frank's story. Frank and his brother Stan, a year older than him, Mum (me, Emma) and Dad, Eddie were a normal run of the mill family. We were wondering where to go camping this year, fretting about homework and future GCSE results, which I now realise is seriously underrated. Aged 11 Frank had a limp from March/April 2019, it was barely noticeable, and somebody had fallen on him in rugby, so we thought little of it. It wasn't giving him pain (which I now know is a warning sign). None of the classic signs were there other than the limp. No weight loss, night sweats, weakness, fatigue etc. Late April we went on holiday, he couldn't keep up with friends. We went to the GP in May; it was written it off as a hamstring strain. I took him back to the GP in the June as it was getting worse. Frank acted and performed, and his big audition of the year (panto) was in Sept which was 3 months away. We thought at worst it might be crutches and a leg support for a couple of weeks. We saw a different GP that time who I think suspected immediately. He sent us straight for an X-ray, called me back in that afternoon ('how very efficient!" I thought) and the bombshell was dropped. Poor guy, I really didn't see it coming. An MRI first thing the following morning followed by a biopsy confirmed a rare bone cancer called osteosarcoma. He had a tumour in his right femur measuring about 18cm at that point. After breaking the news to your husband, sitting your kids at the kitchen table and telling them one of them has cancer is up there on my memorable experience list. We ended up doing it 3 or 4 times, the last one was when we had to tell them Frank's diagnosis was terminal. Frank had about 12 weeks of intensive high toxicity chemo and was re scanned, the tumour had grown; spread to the other femur and there was a question mark over very small dots in his lungs. He switched to an alternative chemo. He had limb salvage surgery to leg 1 in Dec 2019 which is replacing the leg bone from hip to shin with a metal implant. It's very fancy and can be lengthened magnetically as his femur's growth plate was removed as part of the surgery. He finished his chemo in March 2020 and rang the 'end of treatment bell' at #BirminghamChildrensHospital. We celebrated, friends treated him to a surprise limo ride home, it was a time of tentative positivity. He was as weak as a kitten and the side effects of his chemo was horrendous (nobody talks about it). Cont’d in comments.

Hi all, Frank’s Mum here. Yesterday I took the clippers to my older son’s head as he enters P-Coy training with the British Army Fun fact: when Frank’s hair started falling out a short way into his #chemotherapy journey instead of crying or having it clippered or pretending it wasn’t happening he would subtly pull bits out & flick them at his parentals. He found it brilliantly funny. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting he was ‘strong’ or ‘better than’ or ‘being strong’, all these kids are blimmin rock stars because they have no choice. What I am saying is, he was being him. It goes without saying he was not enthusiastic about #hairloss but he definitely dealt with it in his own way. (Sorry #HerefordCountyHospital we were staying with you for much of that fateful weekend, it was also his 12th birthday.) by the time we left the floor looked… hairy). #BeMoreFrank #childhoodcancersupport #b2b #HMBiz #herefordcharity fund.