Charity Christmas sale on Saturday

[DulvilleRes]

'Live Kindly, Live Loudly' Christmas Sale on Saturday 20th November in front of St Barnabas Church Hall, 23 Dulwich Way, SE21 7BT, from 11 am - 1 pm.

To raise funds in Ruby Fuller's memory with all proceeds going to Ruby's fund with Children's Cancer and Leukaemia Group.

We'll be selling Christmas cards, playing cards, stocking fillers, badges, plus cakes, teas and coffees and many preloved clothes (teens, children & adult), books, DVDs, toys (lots of lego) and much more. 100% of proceeds go to the charity. Thanks to the generous people and businesses of Dulwich, there is lots of fabulous stuff!

Ruby's Story

To Ruby, being kind was more important than anything else. Before she died, she asked to be remembered by the motto 'Live Kindly, Live Loudly', encouraging kindness and calling out injustice. Ruby's mum Emma shares her story ...

In June 2019, Ruby's face started to swell and she felt tired and achy. The GP thought it was allergies, but after six more visits and symptoms worsening, she was referred to hospital for an x-ray. We then got the devastating news she had lymphoma, with a large tumour in her chest.

We had a long stay at the Royal Marsden during her intensive chemotherapy while they monitored her for infections. Ruby turned 18 in there, so we threw a party. With the help of friends and the fabulous staff, she had a pretty good day. She came home after seven weeks, before they started the next round of chemo - with a view to then having a donor stem cell transplant. After this round she was allowed home again but infection soon hit. She was back in hospital, this time over Christmas.

We had Ruby home for 10 days before the stem cell transplant conditioning process began. The process involved more intensive chemo, plus radiotherapy before the stem cells were transferred. The conditioning was brutal, but she soon improved and made an amazing recovery.

She came home in February and we spent a few lovely weeks together. But on a weekly check-up, we were told her cancer was back, having morphed into leukaemia. It was incredibly aggressive and she died peacefully at home in May 2020. Her Dad and I were beside her, with one of her beloved cats on her bed. Ruby was smart, funny, and really found her voice as a teenager. She was so kind and brave - she wasn't scared of dying, just of how it would affect others. Ruby's consultant told us that they just haven't yet figured out how to successfully treat this kind of cancer, but she hoped they would very soon. The only way they will do that is with funding. We want to improve the chances of others diagnosed with this in future.