Luke Beford, eight, pictured here with Orl, 6, and her nurse Carly, only wants one gift this year – for people to donate money to help his friend (Picture: PA Real Life/Keech Hospice Care)

Most eight-year-olds would have a long list already made for Santa.

But this young boy only has one request this year.

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Instead of gifts, he wants people to donate money to a six-year-old who has a brain tumour.

Luke Bedford was devastated when he heard his best friend Thomas Forbes’ cousin Orla Hermitage had cancer.


So, the schoolboy from Knebworth, Hertfordshire, wrote a heartbreaking letter to Santa saying: ‘The only thing I want for Christmas is money for charity.’

Luke wrote this touching letter to Santa (Picture: PA Real Life/Collect)

The note continued: ‘Dear Mrs Claus and Mr Claus, aka Santa. Please may you give it to Keech Hospice and the Sick Children’s Trust because I have a friend Thomas who has a cousin who is currently suffering from cancer and I want my friend to have a cousin and other people.



‘Please, please, please give me no presents for Christmas, love Luke.’

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Luke, explaining his reasoning, said: ‘My best friend Thomas told me his cousin has cancer.

‘She’s very poorly. I don’t really know what it is, but I know it’s very bad. I don’t want any presents I want Santa to help and so the charity can help Orla and other people, and my friend can have a cousin.’

Remarkably, at the time of writing his letter to Father Christmas in November, Luke had never even met Orla, who has been battling an inoperable brain tumour since she was 10 months old.

But, after hearing about her plight through Thomas, he decided that all he wants this Christmas is money for the charities that have been supporting her and her family.

At nine months old, Orla began to frequently vomit, throwing up her milk most mornings and then a few months later, she collapsed (Picture: PA Real Life/Keech Hospice Care)

The note, which moved his mum Tanya Bedford, 41, and Orla’s mum Susan Hermitage, 37, to tears, was passed to Susan via her sister Charlotte, Thomas’ mum.

Susan, of Stevenage, Hertfordshire, told how when she first arrived into the world, little Orla was a ‘happy, bouncy baby.’

Then, around nine months old, she began to frequently vomit, throwing up her milk most mornings.

Susan, who has another child, Edward, 3, with husband Simon, 37, took her daughter to the GP after initially thinking she’d caught a simple bug.

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Then, Orla began to tug down on her right ear in distress.

‘It was obvious she was in pain, but she couldn’t articulate exactly where,’ said Susan, who is a full-time carer to Orla.

‘We went back to the GP, this time thinking it was an inner ear infection, but tests seemed to come back fine.’

Things came to a terrifying head in May 2012, when Orla collapsed completely out of the blue.

She was raced to Lister Hospital in Stevenage where, in the early hours of the next morning, she began fitting, suffering a seizure so severe that medics had to place her in an induced coma.

Doctors found a 7cm by 5cm tumour on the toddler’s brain after doing an MRI scan (Picture: PA Real Life/Keech Hospice Care)

They then ran an MRI scan, which found a 7cm by 5cm tumour on the toddler’s brain.

‘It was enormous, so big that it’d pushed her brain to the edge of her skull, where it had started to be forced down her spinal column.



‘The doctors said to us that it was very touch and go, and she probably wouldn’t make the next few hours.

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‘They needed to find a hospital that had a neurosurgeon and a spare intensive care bed imminently, so they made some urgent calls and we were transferred to Addenbrookes in Cambridge.’

There, Orla underwent an operation in which her skull was essentially drilled to relieve some of the pressure and fluid that had built up as a result of the tumour – a condition known as hydrocephalus.

For the next five weeks, she remained in intensive care hooked up to two shunts, which continued to drain the fluid build-up.

She then began chemotherapy, which she continued to have for the next two-and-a-half years, after which the tumour appeared to have shrunk, giving the family some long-awaited good news.

Tragically, though, in May this year, a routine check-up scan discovered it had begun to grow once again.

Orla was transferred to Addenbrooke’s University Hospital in Cambridge where she underwent an operation (Picture: Google)

‘She’s started chemotherapy again, which will continue to next year. At the moment, things are very up in the air. Her tumour is currently classed as inoperable, which may change if it starts to shrink, but it’s a case of waiting to see,’ explained Susan.

‘We’ll find out just a few days before Christmas if the chemo is working. There’s a lot hanging in the balance.

‘We desperately want to celebrate Christmas, but we’re very aware it might be our last with Orla.

‘She’s also been left hugely disabled, as the tumour is on her right frontal lobe, which affects cognition.


‘In a way it’s a blessing as she doesn’t understand the hideousness of what’s happening, but other times I wish I could explain the procedures to her, as I think that’d help calm her down.’

After hearing everything brave Orla is facing, Luke wrote the emotional letter to Santa last month.

The only person he told about his touching gesture was his big brother James, 12, who then read it out to their parents.

‘Thomas and Luke must’ve been discussing Orla a lot at school, and Luke wrote to Santa because he was scared Thomas wouldn’t have a cousin,’ explained Tanya.

‘He said he didn’t want presents – just money to help her. I passed the letter on to Charlotte, Thomas’ mum, who then gave it to Susan.’

Speaking about the moment she read the letter, Susan added: ‘I’m not a hugely emotionally person anymore – you can’t be with what we’re facing, you just have to try and press on with it – but I shed a tear reading it.

‘Luke is such an incredibly selfless boy. If he can do this at just eight, what’s he going to be capable of as an adult? He shows other children that great things can happen if you’re good.’

Now, Luke has set up an online page to raise funds for both The Sick Children’s Trust and Keech Hospice Care, both of whom have been an incredible help to Orla and her family.


Susan said: #I’d like to say how hugely grateful I am to the charities. I don’t know what I’d have done without them.

So far, the page has raised more than £1,300 on the page, and around £400 locally.

Tanya added: #Every day, Luke will ask how the page is doing and whether we’ve got any more donations. He’s still adamant he doesn’t want presents.’

Last week, Luke and Orla finally met in person for the first time, spending the afternoon playing.

Adorably, little Orla made such an impression on Luke that afterwards, he told his mum he wished she was his cousin too.

According to the ONS, cancers remains the most common cause of death for children aged one to 15 years.

The Brain Tumour Charity have also released statistics saying that brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer of children and adults under 40, with almost 30 people being diagnosed a day.

Reflecting on this, Susan said: ‘I’d really like to raise awareness of brain tumours, too. Most people don’t know this, but they’re the biggest killer of children in the UK, and yet they’re so massively underfunded and behind with research.’

To donate, visit the JustGiving page here.

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