Mum whose son, 12, died after leukaemia diagnosis aims to help ‘save other children’ with 12 fundraising challenges

A mother who lost her 12-year-old boy to leukaemia diagnosis has undertaken 12 physical challenges in 12 months to raise money to “help save the lives of other children”. Amy Dixon, 46, a solicitor with the Crown Prosecution Service from Hartlepool, said she was certain her eight-year-son Sam would pull through after his diagnosis on November 8, 2015.

The day after his diagnosis, he started the first of three rounds of chemotherapy and then received a bone marrow transplant on February 12, 2016, but his body gradually “rejected” the transplant, causing him to become “extremely poorly” and his lungs to start failing.

Sam ended up being isolated at home or in hospital and could not go to school – and he developed graft versus host disease (GvHD), where white blood cells attack the patient’s body.

“It was cruel for a little boy but he never once felt sorry for himself,” Amy said.

Amy and her husband Paul, 52, a solicitor, said they “gave him the best life they possibly could”, taking him to the cinema, theatre and comic book shops – some of his favourite pastimes.

But, despite doctors trying everything, her “outdoorsy, active and intelligent” son passed away at the age of 12. Even though Sam did not survive, Amy said the transplant gave him a chance of survival and “those four extra years” – and this inspired her to raise money for the charity Anthony Nolan, which identified Sam’s donor, by undertaking 12 physical challenges in 12 months in 2022.

Amy raised a total of £18,900 and won the Individual Fundraiser of the Year award at the Anthony Nolan Supporter Awards (ANSAs) in June 2023 – but she does not want to stop there.

“If he hadn’t had the transplant, he would have died much sooner – it was a chance for him to