Our Story

The Beginning

On the 3rd of August 2008 Ruddi Waterworth-Jones was born. A beautiful, happy, smiley baby that his parents adored. Ruddi was growing nicely and hitting all the usual milestones.

Ruddi reached six and a half months old and after weeks of seeing him struggle, Ali decided to take him to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. The doctors began doing tests and it was to be 14 weeks until they were able to return home. Ruddi was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma – an extremely rare form of cancer of the bladder and prostate. At the time, he was the youngest child ever to be diagnosed with this specific form of cancer.

Ruddi endured six months of chemotherapy and became the first child from the UK to travel to Jacksonville on the NHS for pioneering proton beam therapy. The tumour was 10cm in length and width which in a body so small was a huge size in comparison. Once the tumour had been shrunk to a significant size Ruddi had an 8 hour operation to remove it along with his bladder and prostate. He was fitted with a permanent Urostomy bag that was to collect his urine and a tube to allow the family to administer medication as and when needed.

During treatment, Ruddi and his family were sent on a special break by a regional charity. They visited Primrose Valley in Filey and had the most wonderful time and it was here that Ruddi took his first steps. After being told that he may never walk due to the rickets the treatment had caused this was almost a miracle.

The family had made memories that they were to treasure forever and Ali couldn't stop thinking about what a difference this trip had made to them all. She decided that she was going to set up a charity that would offer families, similar to hers, a respite break but completely free of charge. When Ruddi became ill Ali had to give up work to look after him, holiday was last on the list of priorities where money was concerned but it was what was most needed.

Most families that have a child with cancer or another life limiting illness generally tend to only have one source of income and an ever growing list of essentials to pay for that they never would have before, such as additional travel costs to and from appointments, convenience food in hospital, parking charges and in extreme cases new clothing to accommodate tubes, lines, wires and bags.

This is why for most families a holiday isn't affordable or obtainable…until they come to us at Ruddi's Retreat. Where most funding stops after active treatment finishes, ours continues and we assist families from diagnosis, through treatment, to remission and sadly in far more cases than we dare to think about, we offer bereavement support to both parents and children.