Eilidh’s home is your home
Lottery funding will see house in memory of teen welcome first family in 2021
The Eilidh Brown Memorial Fund has been awarded almost £10,000 in National Lottery funding to support its work to provide the new Eilidh Brown holiday home for children living with or who have survived cancer.
The Stirling charity will use the cash to complete the garden at the house – being built in Thornhill – before it officially welcomes the first family.
The Eilidh Brown Memorial Fund has been running since 2011 and is staffed mainly by four volunteers.
It was founded by Gordon and Nicole Brown after their daughter Eilidh passed away from cancer in March 2010.
Eilidh was 14 when she collapsed on a school trip in February 2009. A scan showed she had a tumour the size of a melon which was promptly removed along with her left ovary.
Tests showed the tumour was malignant and that she also had a form of Turners Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder which occurs in 1 out of 2,000 girls and is likely to have made her predisposed to germ cell cancer in her ovaries.
Throughout the year, Eilidh endured several major surgeries to remove various tumours as well countless hours of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Sadly, however, she passed away on March 25 in 2010 after a 14-month battle with the disease – nine days short of her 16th birthday.
Her family said: “She showed tremendous bravery and wisdom throughout her ordeal and inspired everyone who came into contact with her.
“Eilidh was the most extraordinary, loving, sweet, faithful and brave young girl, who always thought of others before herself.”
The family resolved that whatever the outcome, they wanted somehow to help others and make sure that Eilidh’s legacy would continue.
It was Eilidh’s dream to build a holiday home for children living with cancer so they could spend quality time with their parents, siblings and wider family to reconnect after the trauma of cancer treatment.
Gordon and Nicole have worked tirelessly since then to raise funds to do just that.
The home had been planned to be finished and opened by early summer 2020 but due to the covid pandemic the build had to be put on hold. It has started again and they hope to have the house and garden completed by autumn ready to welcome the first family in early 2021.
The Eilidh Brown Memorial Fund will offer the families one week’s holiday in the fantastic new home and garden.
The National Lottery Community Fund distributes money raised by National Lottery players for good causes and is the largest community funder in the UK.
The grant will allow the garden project to be completed and a local company is on standby to start the garden work with help from many volunteers in the community to maintain it.
Gordon said: “We’re delighted The National Lottery Community Fund has recognised our work in this way.
“Now, thanks to National Lottery players we will be able to press on with our plans to finish the house and garden and be ready to welcome the first family in early 2021.
“This is so important because it helps both the children and the parents to build stronger relationships with each other, spend quality time together away from the pressures of a hospital environment and have fun together as a family.”
Caroline Stuart, volunteer and director at the Eilidh Brown Memorial Fund, said: “I have been working with Gordon and Nicole to raise the funds, help out at events and generally do whatever is needed for a number of years and I am so delighted with the funding from the National lottery and the difference it is going to make to help us finish the garden project.”