Shaun's Story

Shaun started life as a happy, intelligent, full of beans little boy; he was extremely active and really enjoyed the great outdoors. His big beautiful smile and chirpy nature was certainly contagious.

Sadly shortly after starting primary school Shaun started to become extremely anxious, we obviously presumed it was the new start but over time the anxiety became worse and along with this he started to have mobility problems.

He was diagnosed with hyper mobility and given physiotherapy but unfortunately Shaun's problems began to deteriorate. After numerous appointments and telephone calls we eventually got an appointment with the Community Paediatrician who alerted us to the fact that Shaun could be suffering from something serious.

On June 10th 2015 Shaun had an MRI scan which confirmed our absolute worst nightmare, Shaun had a huge amount of fluid on his brain, we had to make the trip that evening to Southampton hospital unaware of what our future may hold. During the night we were told the devastating news that the blockage was in fact a Brain Tumour, it was without doubt the longest most terrifying time of our lives.

On Thursday 11th June 2015 Shaun endured brain surgery to relieve the pressure and reroute the fluid around the Tumour. Our darling beautiful, kind little boy remained polite and cheerful throughout the whole ordeal and made us so very proud. The saying that 'heroes come in all forms' could not have been more applicable.

On that day aged just four years old Shaun decided that he did not want anyone else to go through the same as the others he had met on the ward, so he pledged to make a difference. Over the nine years that followed Shaun, with his little sister Chloe by his side, planned and completed many events to raise money for charities to help others, in particular the brain tumour charity which he raised £25000 for.

Shaun had a huge passion for wildlife and during Covid set up a wildlife Facebook page which ended up with hundreds of followers worldwide. His incredible knowledge became noticed and he ended up doing a short piece on Winterwatch. Despite all this he loved nothing more than being out with just his family watching insects and listening to the birds.
Shaun fought to restore all he had lost to his tumour, mobility, balance and memory and by 2024 at age 13 he was winning, his tumour was stable, his mobility good and his future so incredibly bright. Everyone that met Shaun instantly loved him. On the 6th April 2024 our intelligent, funny, calm and wonderful boy went to bed with what we thought was a stomach bug, we awoke on the 7th April to hear him going into Cardiac arrest. Shaun passed away from his first ever asthma attack, he had not been diagnosed with asthma. Our boy achieved so much for someone so young but his biggest legacy of all is that of kindness.

We are so extremely grateful for the opportunity the Bens Saunders foundation have given us to spend the weekend away as a family to be together and remember our beautiful boy.