TOM'S STORY

During the summer of 2020 Tom was being treated for what was thought to be a flare up of his Crohn’s disease, however, the treatment never seemed to improve how he was feeling. Tom was admitted into hospital on the 1st of November 2020.  Within two days he was told that he had stomach cancer, every other day, the news would get progressively worse as the Dr’s found that the cancer had spread. On the 11th of November, Tom was told that his condition was terminal and that he had approximately 6 months to live. This was truly devastating.

 

Tom decided to be pragmatic about the situation, he said that “getting upset and worrying about what was happening, would not change anything, it was wasted energy”.

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One of the things that Tom wanted to do was to raise some money for charities that were close to his heart.
We started to discuss the idea of setting up a charitable foundation. A good friend introduced us to a firm
of Lawyers who had experience of this type of thing. Tom sat in on the first of these first meetings.

 

Unfortunately, Tom’s condition deteriorated and at the beginning of February 2021, he had to go into the Christie Hospital in Manchester.  He stayed there for 8 weeks, despite their best medical efforts Tom’s condition got progressively worse, it got to the point where his Consultants said that they could do no more for him, a rapid discharge was arranged and we got Tom home on the 1st of April 2021. 

 

As a family we looked after Tom at home, there was a member of the family by his side 24/7. Tom passed away peacefully on the 18th of April 2021, Tom was just 29.

 

With the help of some incredible people, in the summer of 2021, I started the ball rolling to set up The Tom Clarke Foundation. The foundation will support Crohn’s & Colitis UK, Cancer Charities in the UK (with a focus on the research conducted by The Christie Hospital in Manchester) and hospice care within the UK.