Community Awards 2009 - ‘Most Courageous Child’

All nominations we received described incredibly brave children whose stories were both moving and inspiring. It’s difficult to pick ‘winners’ in such a category, but the number of nominations received for both Holly Calenti and John Michael-Moore presented us joint winners.

In February of this year and at just 11 years old, Holly Calenti was diagnosed with Neuroblastomer, a very rare and aggressive form of cancer.

In the past six months Holly’s faced surgery to remove one of two tumours and endured months of painful chemotherapy treatment followed by a stem cell transplant. She is soon to enter the final phase of her treatment which involves facing weeks of daily radiotherapy sessions.

John Michael-Moore has Rothmund Thomson Syndrome as well as a gut problem, a low immune system, diabetes and eczema.

Rothmund Thomson Syndrome means John’s body is aging like an old mans. He has no hair. His bones break easily, are very weak and deformed, for which he has had to have operations in the past, as well as another big operation coming up on his face and jaw in the future.

John’s gut problems mean he has never eaten and has always been fed through a tube, causing him to be connected to a machine for anywhere up to twelve hours a day. His low immunity also means he gets lots of infections and needs an infusion of white blood cells every seven days - something he’s learnt to do himself.

Grace Bagster, Centre Manager at Jackson Square was delighted to present Holly and John with their awards and contribute to recognising their courageousness.