On the morning of 16th March, in the weekly spiritual assembly, Year 7 Niam stood up and spoke about his diagnosis of, and ongoing treament for, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Niam has been undergoing chemotherapy at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, where he has met a number of other children dealing with cancer – and one child in particular, three-year-old Reuben, who Niam has really taken to heart. Reuben has a rare form of childhood cancer that will require treatment in the U.S. and which is expected to cost around £250,000 – and Niam has decided to raise funds to help Reuben’s family pay for his treatment. (https://www.facebook.com/ReubensFight/?fref=ts)
After Niam’s talk, the Headmaster spoke about the many things that he admires about Niam: his courage to stand up and talk about his cancer, his strength in dealing with difficult treatment, and – most importantly – his selflessness in asking everyone to focus on Reuben when he himself is fighting his own battle with cancer.

“We all have our own little battles to fight every day,” the Headmaster said, “and Niam has all of these same little battles – plus a much bigger one – yet he chooses to focus on thinking of others. Niam is truly a role model. Thank you, Niam, for your words, for inspiring us, and for showing us that whatever is going on in our own lives, we can think of others first”.

The following day, the School had a non-uniform day to raise money for Reuben’s Fight – and  whole school photo was taken to send a message of encouragement to both Reuben and Niam. The day raised a staggering amount of more than £3300.

If you would like to make a donation to Reuben’s Fight, go to: https://www.gofundme.com/xtkdkh4y-reubens-fight