Jayne Lyons is a homeopath and works for a local cancer charity. She lives in Builth Wells in Powys with her daughter Kathryn, nine, and partner Ed. In January 2024, Kathryn was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a form of blood cancer. The family spent five months living in the Children’s Hospital in Cardiff while Kathryn had five cycles of intense chemotherapy. Jayne says that the LATCH accommodation allowed the family to stay together to support Kathryn, who is now one of our ambassadors.

“When your child is diagnosed with cancer, you think of nothing else but that diagnosis and getting them through it. You almost lose all sense of yourself. You don’t always eat properly. You don’t always do the exercise you would do. Because your child is in isolation, you don’t have your usual friends and family that you can hug or talk to. Your life is put on hold.

When Kathryn was going through treatment, LATCH gave us emotional support as well as support with physical things that you wouldn’t necessarily give yourself – because you don’t think about yourself. But LATCH do.

For example, through their accommodation, they gave us access to a fridge to put our food in so we didn’t have to buy expensive meals. And Helen, our LATCH Social Worker, would come to see us and say ‘How are you doing?’ or ‘Do you want a cup of tea?’ Having someone there to ask that was so important. 

I knew I had to be there for Kathryn and that I would look after myself later. But it was so reassuring to know that LATCH were close by to help.

The hospital thought it was coeliac disease but after scans, they told us it was a lymphoma. When we were transferred to the Children’s Hospital in Cardiff, they confirmed that it was Burkitt lymphoma and that Kathryn needed six months of chemotherapy. Initially, I felt numb, then shocked. Then, it felt unreal. I kind of locked down and just had to deal with everything day by day, trying not to think about the future.

She took it in her stride really. She is a clever, confident, caring girl. Even when she felt sick when she had treatment, she always had a smile on her face.

The treatment was intense. She had a week’s worth of chemo every day for a week, and then her blood levels would drop, and she wouldn’t have an immune system at all. As soon as her blood levels started increasing, she’d have another week of chemo.

We were introduced to LATCH very early on because they gave us a room in their accommodation upstairs from the paediatric oncology ward. That was just fantastic. We live about a 1.5 hour drive from the hospital so couldn’t just pop home. We didn’t want to leave Kathryn. If we’d have had to pay for accommodation long term, it would have been very difficult for us.

There is a pull down bed in all of the children’s rooms which meant one of us could always stay with Kathryn at night. But what would the other one do? The room upstairs that LATCH provided was a godsend because we were literally a floor away. So if Kathryn woke up, feeling sick, or just wanting two of us there, we could give whoever was sleeping upstairs a call. Then we’d be both be with her in minutes.

The LATCH accommodation made a horrendous time more bearable. I knew that I could go and get some sleep and be close to Kathryn, running down if I needed to. It was reassuring and made life a lot easier.

Helen helped us by making sure that our cashflow was okay. She filled out some of the forms for external financial assistance and also put us in touch with the charity the Little Princess Trust who visited the hospital and got Kathryn a wig. Kathryn started losing her hair in hospital, and was worried about it, initially. After getting the wig, she said she wasn’t worried as much.

After Kathryn’s birthday, a scan revealed that the cancer had gone. It was a huge relief that it had gone but she still needed two rounds of chemotherapy. It has been six months since then and the cancer is still gone now. Kathryn is having physical check-ups every three months. She’s thriving being back at school, which she loves, and is building up her stamina so she can be back horse riding and swimming.

Even now Kathryn gets flashbacks. When she got a cold the other day, she looked up at me, worried, and said ‘Do I have to go back into the hospital?’ Helen introduced us to a play therapist who goes to Kathryn’s school or comes to our house, which is helping her to process everything.

Kathryn wants to give back to LATCH. She has become a LATCH Ambassador which she really enjoys. She’s a Welsh speaker and is completed an interview for S4C for Childhood Cancer Awareness month. She is very into a drama and is in a theatre group so is looking forward to it.

When she was in hospital, Kathryn and I tracked her dad, Ed, on an app when he was running the Newport marathon for LATCH. We could see his time and where he was. He ran a great time and raised £9,000 which was fantastic. Kathryn now has her own GoFundMe page to raise money for LATCH. This month she is being sponsored to not eat sugar and next year she wants to climb Pen Y Fan.

I’d like to see LATCH expand their services so there’s more social workers and support because what they do is amazing.

I don’t think we can describe how much it means to us to receive their support and the lifeline they give families who have just received the worst news of their lives.”