Will never forget @TrentAA sending this to Ben. YNWA ⚽️🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿💕

Dear Business Owner, Please can you support I'm writing on behalf of the Ben Saunders Foundation, a Bath-based charity supporting young people with cancer and their families. This Christmas, we are holding a fundraising raffle and are looking for local businesses willing to donate a prize, voucher, gift, experience or service. Every prize helps us raise vital funds to provide free respite breaks in the Cotswolds for families facing cancer. The Foundation was established in memory of our son, Ben, who sadly passed away from cancer in 2020. Since 2021, we have supported more than 500 families with free holidays, giving them precious time together away from treatment and hospital appointments. No donation is too small. Whether it is a voucher, hamper, product or experience, your support could make a real difference to local families during an incredibly difficult time. As Bath Charity of the Year 2026, we would also be delighted to acknowledge your support across our social media channels. Thank you for your consideration and I would be grateful to hear from you. Kind regards, Tom Saunders
Chairman & Ben's Dad
Ben Saunders Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1192178

Lovely header @csaunders_4

Family 547 Tomorrow we welcome Becky and Andrew from Keyworth near Nottingham. Please join me in wishing them a wonderful midweek break 💕 Here is Ted’s journey Last August, our world changed overnight when we took our 10 year old son, Ted to A&E after a lump appeared on his neck while we were on holiday. We never imagined that, just days later, we would be told he had multiple tumours in his neck, chest and kidneys. Following a biopsy, Ted was diagnosed with T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma, and our family began a journey we could never have prepared for. What followed was months of intensive chemotherapy, countless hospital admissions, infections, transfusions and complications that left Ted incredibly poorly. At times, he was too weak to walk and spent much of the past year using a wheelchair. He faced long periods in hospital, missed Christmas and New Year at home, and endured more than any child should ever have to. Through it all, Ted has shown incredible courage, and we have been surrounded by the most amazing family and friends who have helped carry us through the hardest days. We are now in the maintenance phase of Ted’s treatment, which will continue until January 2029. Although we are in a much better place than we were a year ago, the journey is far from over. Ted is still immunocompromised and continues to experience the effects of his treatment, but we are beginning to see him get back on his feet and slowly rebuild his strength. Childhood cancer changes life for the whole family, including Ted’s brothers, Dylan and Rex, who have had to adapt to hospital life and a very different kind of childhood. After such a long and challenging year, the opportunity to spend some precious time together, make happy memories and simply enjoy being a family means so much to us, thank you to Ben and his wonderful foundation

Proud of you @csaunders_4 ⚽️💕

Family 546 Tomorrow we also welcome Jon, Shireen and their family from Worcester. Please join us in wishing them a wonderful weekend. Here is young Alfie’s journey 💕 In February 2026 Alfie went for a routine ultrasound on his liver for what we thought was just an enlarged liver. The next day we had a phone call telling us to get him to hospital asap. After 5 weeks of tests, scans & biopsies, he was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma. He started treatment very quickly after diagnosis. He has now endured 6 rounds of chemotherapy, 12 rounds of proton beam therapy in Manchester and a massive 9 hour surgery to remove the tumour. Currently we are awaiting scans at the end of October to see if everything has gone and all treatments have worked. It’s also our youngest sons Finns birthday on the 19th so this break has come at the right time for our family. It will be so nice for us to get away. Thank you to everyone at Bens foundation for this opportunity to get away. 💕 Thank you

Family 545 The advantage of being a small charity we can occasionally support children with illnesses other than cancer. This weekend we host two more families, first we welcome Charlie and Lauren from nearby Chipping Sodbury. Charlie is a local footballer and close friend of Joe’s Hutt - The Thrift Shop who are wonderful supporters of ours. We hope they have an amazing weekend away with their children. Here is Teddy’s story 🙏 Teddy was born in October 2022 at 29 weeks and 5 days weighing 2lb 1oz. Although he spent nearly 10 weeks in nicu, his neonatal journey was relatively smooth. Shortly after Teddy turned 1 years old he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy affecting both legs and his right arm. This means he has regular physiotherapy input, has had occupational therapy and requires equipment and support. He has had to learn how to reach milestones differently to most of his peers. Teddy started to walk with a frame and progressed from this to independent walking. In 2025 he was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome, following an inpatient hospital stay. He was on and off steroids for 6 months for treatment but struggled to stop them due to relapses in his condition. To help with the nephrotic syndrome and steroid use Teddy needed 2 rounds of rituximab. His kidneys are currently behaving thanks to that treatment however the steroid use and rituximab causes immunosuppresion. Sadly Teddy became unwell on a holiday this summer and was diagnosed with meningitis and encephalitis. After a 2 month battle in and out of hospital, lots of tests and treatment he has taken some steps back. He is now walking with a frame again, requires increased physio, more equipment and is taking some time to recover. Teddy is such a strong and determined boy who we know will overcome the new challenges that he faces. Although a different story to others we would like to thank the Ben Saunders foundation for our stay and really appreciate the kindness and generosity.

Family 543 Tomorrow we welcome Anna, Dom and beautiful Florence from Stourbridge in the West Midlands. Please join me in wishing them a lovely time away together in the cotswolds. In September 2024, our little girl Florence began becoming poorly. For six weeks, her symptoms were suspected to be constipation. Then, on 18th November 2024, just after her first birthday, our world was turned upside down when we discovered that what we had been reassured was constipation was actually a 30cm tumour in her tummy, with disease affecting her spine. Flo was diagnosed with high-risk, MYCN-amplified neuroblastoma. Over the next 18 months, she endured eight cycles of chemotherapy, a 12-hour operation to remove her tumour, two rounds of high-dose chemotherapy, two stem cell transplants, 12 days of radiotherapy and six months of immunotherapy. She spent 297 days in hospital, including time in intensive care, where she needed ventilation. We watched our tiny girl endure more than any child ever should. In April 2026, Flo completed her frontline treatment, and we are so, so grateful. Sadly, treatment left her with long-term complications, including heart disease (pulmonary hypertension) and lung disease. She came home on oxygen in December 2025 to complete her treatment, but a few weeks ago, she was finally able to come off it. A milestone we will never take for granted 🫶🏻 Flo continues to have scans every three months. She still has some residual disease, although she is stable, and we remain forever grateful for this, experiencing every day with her as a gift. As she approaches her third birthday, Flo is home, enjoying being a little girl. She loves Peppa Pig, playing cafés and shops, seeing her friends and getting lost in imaginative role play. Watching her play, laugh and discover the world is everything. She is enjoying the life her little body has fought so hard for. But finishing treatment doesn’t mean the fear is over. We are fighting to secure DFMO, a relapse-prevention treatment that could help reduce the risk of her cancer returning. The UK Expanded Access Programme closed just one week before Flo was due to become eligible, leaving us to fundraise to access it privately. Our target is £100,000, and we have nearly £85,000 so far. We are so amazed by the support we have received along the way. 🤍 A huge thank you to the Ben Saunders Foundation for having us stay with you and giving us the opportunity to make special memories together as a family. These moments mean more to us than words can explain. ❤️

Hi, could you help the Ben Saunders Foundation? Please share and make contact if you can help. Thank you

Today we had the honour of attending the Radio Bath awards ceremony and are proud to have been awarded the compassion in action award. Huge thank you to everyone for helping us keep Ben’s legacy growing 💕 Congratulations to all of today winners, we are all proud to represent our beautiful city 🙏

Can you help?

Last opportunity to enter tonights draw, supporting young people with cancer ⚽️💕

Dear Club Secretary, I am writing on behalf of the Ben Saunders Foundation to introduce our charity and ask whether your club would consider displaying one of our pitchside advertising boards at your ground. The Foundation was established in memory of our son, Ben, who died from cancer in 2020. We created the charity to give children and young people affected by cancer, together with their families, the opportunity to spend precious time together away from hospitals, treatment, and the pressures that cancer places on family life. Since 2021, we have supported more than 500 families. We now provide free respite holidays from our two holiday lodges at Hoburne Cotswold Holiday Park, working closely with organisations including Teenage Cancer Trust and Young Lives vs Cancer. More than 100 families benefit from our holidays each year, representing around 400 people annually. Football, and particularly the non-league game, has always been a huge part of our family life. Before he became poorly, Ben played for Odd Down, Oldland Abbotonians and Bath City, and all three clubs now proudly display a Ben Saunders Foundation board. Ben's brother Charlie currently plays for Bitton and previously played for Odd Down, Welton Rovers and Bradford Town, all of whom also display Ben's board. I have also previously managed Calne Town, Chippenham Town and Odd Down. Our family's links with the non-league game therefore go back many years, and the support the football community has shown us since losing Ben has been incredibly special. More than 70 clubs already display a Ben Saunders Foundation pitchside board around football grounds across the South and West of the country. I would also like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all the clubs that have supported the Foundation over the past few years. Whether by displaying Ben's board, raising awareness of our work, fundraising or simply helping to share Ben's story, that support has meant an enormous amount to our family. The non-league football community has genuinely embraced the Foundation and helped us keep Ben's name and legacy visible at grounds across the region. For most clubs, the cost of producing a pitchside board is something they are kindly able to cover themselves. We can supply all of the artwork required, ready for you to pass directly to your usual local signage supplier. However, we appreciate that every club operates within different financial circumstances. If paying the full cost of a board is not possible, please do not let that prevent you from getting involved. The Foundation can certainly contribute towards the cost. For us, this is not simply about advertising. Every board helps keep Ben's name and legacy alive, raises awareness of the Foundation and, most importantly, helps more families affected by cancer discover that free respite support is available to them. If your club would be willing to display a Ben Saunders Foundation board at your ground, I would be delighted to arrange the artwork and help with anything else required. Thank you for taking the time to read about Ben and the work being done in his memory, and once again, a heartfelt thank you to those clubs that are already supporting us. It means more to our family than you may realise. Kind regards, Tom Saunders Ben Saunders Foundation [email protected]

The 200 club draw in On Wednesday 30th September. Once again £500 will be paid out or the winner may prefer a Christmas break in the cotswolds The 200 club is what underpins the foundation and enables us to support hundreds of families each year. Remember once you have been in the 200 club for 12 months you are entitled to purchase a discounted break in the cotswolds subject to availability. All welcome to join 💕🙏

Lovely to be sent these by friend of the Foundation Ross Davies manager of @BittonAFC Under 11s, his players proudly wearing their new Ben Saunders Foundation kit ⚽️💕

Proud of @csaunders_4 , top scorer last season @Odd_DownAFC , transferred to Bitton this week and the team get a fantastic 3 points against a strong @LongwellGreenFC Keep being you Charlie, the nicest kid I know

September 200 club will take place on Wednesday 30 September. £5 per entry, help support young people with cancer and be in with the opportunity to win a holiday in the cotswolds or £300💕 All welcome 🙏 Thank you

Family 539 Tomorrow we welcome Katie-Mai and her boyfriend Sam from Neath in South Wales. Katie has a synovial sarcoma the same as Ben had but thankfully (if you can say that), it is in her leg. Please join me in wishing them a lovely break 💕 We have several opportunities if you’d like to make contact 🙏 Here is Katie-Mai’s journey My cancer journey actually started around four years ago. After years of appointments with various professionals, investigations and uncertainty, I finally had an answer in July of this year: I have synovial sarcoma. Being diagnosed at 24 has been something I never imagined I would have to face. I have just completed my 5 weeks of radiotherapy and I am having surgery in 4 weeks’ time to hopefully remove the sarcoma, with a long road of treatment and regular scans still ahead of me. It has been an incredibly difficult and emotional time, but having somewhere like this to stay gives me the chance to step away from hospital appointments and treatment for a little while, spend time with the people I love, and make some happy memories during a very uncertain time. I’m so grateful to have a stay like this. It means more than I can put into words. The work that the Ben Saunders Foundation does for people is such a beautiful thing❤️

Family 538 Tomorrow we welcome Lorna and Nick from nearby Wells in Somerset, please join me in wishing them a lovely weekend away 🙏💕 Here is beautiful Ottie’s heartbreaking story 💔 Our eldest daughter, Ottie, was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma at the height of the very first lockdown, in April 2020. She was three weeks away from turning four, and her little sister Audy had just turned two. Ottie hadn’t been herself for a few weeks. She’d lost her appetite, was having night terrors and just seemed generally fed up with life. We spoke to GPs, health visitors, family and friends, and everyone thought she was anxious about Covid and being isolated at home. We knew something wasn’t right, but we could never have imagined the devastating diagnosis that followed. Her time in hospital was far from normal. Nurses were hidden behind masks, we were confined to our room and Ottie couldn’t meet other children going through the same thing. We couldn’t meet other parents either. In fact, as her parents, we weren’t even allowed to be in hospital together. We had to swap over in the corridor, quickly sharing updates from the doctors, what she’d eaten and what the plan was for the next 24 hours, before rushing back to Ottie because she couldn’t be left alone for long. Her sister Audy never got to visit her in hospital. Once treatment started and she began to feel a little better, her signature smile returned. She threw herself into all the crafts and activities the play team provided and, for a while, seemed to be sailing through an incredibly intense treatment plan: eight rounds of chemotherapy, six-hour abdominal surgery, high-dose chemotherapy, radiotherapy and immunotherapy. Then, with just two rounds of immunotherapy left, she was admitted to hospital with what we thought was a tummy bug. Devastatingly, it was a relapsed tumour. Even more devastatingly, it was too aggressive to cure. Ottie underwent another long and scary surgery, followed by several rounds of a different chemotherapy in the hope of prolonging her life. Eventually, we had to make the impossible decision to stop treatment and spend the time we had left together as a family. With the help of some incredible charities and very special people, we were able to make some wonderful memories together. After a truly magical last Christmas, we checked into our local children’s hospice on New Year’s Eve 2021 for the final time. On 31 January 2022, our beautiful Ottie passed away. The past 4 ½ years have been really tough as a family, trying to manage our own grief, while supporting each-other – especially Audy who was only 3 when her sister died. How do you even begin to explain? Audy has been incredible though and astounds us every day. We talk about Ottie all the time and she’s very much with us wherever we go. We recently welcomed another daughter to our family – Wren – and while we are over the moon to have her, her arrival has brought with it a lot of complicated emotions. She’s very much like Ottie was as a baby, which is a wonderful blessing. We are so grateful to have the opportunity to have a little holiday at Ben’s retreat – some family time away from home is very much needed and appreciated x

Huge thank you to the hundreds who support BSF. September draw is on 30 September at 7.30 💕