Following the death of his teenage daughter Evie this year, Rainy Day Trust CEO Bryan Clover has established charity, Evie’s Gift offering financial support to parents with children admitted to hospital with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. Bryan is inviting business partners who want to support the charity and its work to get in touch.

Bryan explains that “the charity, Evie's Gift, was born out of tragedy” when he and his wife lost their 13-year-old daughter, to “a very rare, highly aggressive brain tumour”.

Evie’s condition was so rare, that there are just 30 cases a year in the UK, and only 400 across all of North America and Europe. She was diagnosed while on holiday with her parents in Spain, which led to two emergency operations to save her life, before she was airlifted home and admitted to Bristol Children's Hospital.

Bryan says she “received the best care possible from a group of dedicated doctors and nurses” during her time at the hospital. 

“Evie spent nine days in paediatric intensive care, had two more operations and a further three weeks on the high dependency unit, before being taken home as chemotherapy and radio therapy were not going to be effective.”

During their month in Bristol Children's Hospital, Bryan and Patsy were fortunate enough to be accommodated in the hospital's bunk rooms for four nights, and then at the charity Ronald McDonald House for the next four weeks. They jumped ahead of 19 other families on the waiting list because of the seriousness of Evie's condition.

But other parents weren't so lucky and, too often, Bryan and Patsy saw frightened, tired parents sleeping on chairs in the Parents' Room/Kitchen or even sleeping in their cars because they couldn't afford the local hotels. 

Bryan says: "Having your child admitted to hospital with a life-threatening condition is bad enough, but having to face tough, complex medical decisions when sleep-deprived is a dreadful situation to face. The free accommodation, where available, is fantastic, but there isn't enough to go around as we saw all too often."  

So, when their daughter died, Bryan and Patsy decided to do something about it and tackle that, and other problems, head on. Evie's Gift, a new registered charity (No: 1177460) has two main aims: to give immediate financial assistance to parents whose children have been admitted to hospital with a life-threatening or life-limiting condition, and to fund research into the rare brain cancer that took her from us too soon. 

“Brain tumours are the biggest cancer-related killer of children in the UK because, by the time they are identified, it's almost invariably too late,” Bryan said. “From Evie's first headache to her death was just 13 weeks.”

The charity will aim to pay for two or three nights' accommodation locally and help meet other costs associated with parents being near their child while they are in hospital, like food and travel costs.  

Whilst the charity can’t cover everything, Bryan and Patsy “hope to take away some of the worry for a couple of days, allowing stressed-out parents to think straight and get some quality rest”.

Any funds left over at the end of each year will be used to support research into the extremely rare brain cancer that took their daughter.

The Charity will welcome business partners to support its work and all enquiries in the first instance should be directed to Bryan at his private e-mail address bryanclover@hotmail.com.

Personal donations can also be made here or why not take part in a fundraising event to support the charity, including a 13-mile coastal walk on May 26.