Please help Captain Starlight be there for children like Josh.
Despite the generous response of so many supporters to our recent appeal for emergency help to keep the Starlight Express Rooms open, this is a financially challenging year and we still need your help to ensure Captain Starlight can always be there for children like Josh.
Josh was born with several holes in his heart, obstructed airways, severe eczema and renal problems. Josh has been through more than any child should have to. By the age of three, he had spent more than half his life in hospital, and there were times when even a common cold could have killed him.
Josh and his family have endured an extremely difficult journey. Unless you have been in a similar situation, it’s almost impossible to understand what it feels like to have your child look you in the eye, and ask you “am I going to die?” and to not know how to answer them, because you know that, yes, they just might.
Without Captain Starlight to hold Josh’s hand and lead him through the darkness, Josh’s mum, Rachel, did not know if either of them would have made it this far.
“What the Starlight Express Rooms and Captain Starlight do for Josh is beyond
praise. There was one period a few years back when Josh was in hospital for two
months having surgery twice a week every week for six weeks. He was bedridden, he couldn’t move, and to have the Captains come up to
the room just to see Josh smile and laugh, even if just for five minutes, there
aren’t words to explain the relief.”
But it’s more than just about cheering kids up. It’s about giving them
a reason to go on, helping them to find enough pleasure in life for it to seem worth fighting for.
There was a time when Josh was talking about death a lot, to the point
where Rachel was frightened he was going to give up. He was in one of those periods when he felt surrounded by darkness and just couldn’t see any brightness at the end of the tunnel.
“Time and time again, into that darkness stepped Captain Starlight, like a beacon of light when Josh needed it most”, recalls Rachel.
“And this is the only way I can think to describe what Starlight do. They help kids just get that little bit further down the dark tunnel, just keep them going past the bends and dips in the road. So that they have enough hope in their little hearts to keep on going instead of lying down and giving up.
To put it another way, whilst surgery and drugs fix kids’ bodies, it’s Captain
Starlight who fixes their souls. And you cannot have a body without a soul.
Nor can you have a happy children’s ward without Starlight. That’s why I am
so devastated to learn that a lack of money is threatening the future of this
priceless children’s charity", said Rachel.
Please, if Josh’s story has touched you, help us build a secure future for the Starlight Express Rooms:
