‘Trauma fuelled me to start something positive’
Son launches charity in mum’s name after cancer death
A young man who lost his mum to cancer has created a charity in her name to help other families going through the same experience.
Tom Mackelden, 24, from Coxheath, launched the Tania Mackelden Foundation with a Great Gatsby themed event at The Weald of Kent Golf Club in Headcorn.
Tom received the heartbreaking news his mum had the disease when he was just 15, and it was on New Year’s Eve 2016 the family found out she only had months to live. The hairdresser, from Staplehurst, died in February 2017, aged 48.
Tom is now hoping to raise money and help families in a similar position, funding things like memory-making holidays, days out and even helping with bills and food shopping.
He raised £2,500 at the launch on Saturday, April 9, attended by more than 100 people.
“It was one of the most emotional but amazing nights of my
life,” he said.
“We chose the Great Gatsby theme as the plot is about a massive party and lots of fun, which is exactly what my mum was like.
“She loved a drink, was always on the shots, and was a fun party girl who loved the glitz and glamour.”
Tom’s world was turned upside down yet again four years after Tania’s death, after it was revealed she was a victim of necrophiliac David Fuller.
The 67-year-old monster abused more than 100 women in hospital mortuaries between 2008 and 2020.
Despite this, Tom hopes the
foundation will help turn his negative emotions into something more positive.
He said: “I know what he has done, but it spurred me on to do this which is bigger and better than anything he’s done.
“It’s made me more positive and it outshines the horrors of what he done.”