A teenager's wish to help other children living with cancer has been made a reality by his family two years after he sadly passed away.
Josh Smith lost his battle with Osteosarcoma - bone cancer - on May 5, 2021, at the age of 15. Today would have been his 18th birthday, which he would have celebrated with his twin sister Libby.
During his 15 month fight with Osteosarcoma, the "kind, selfless and inspirational" teen, from Monkseaton, told his family he wanted to help other children diagnosed with cancer to have a holiday with their family. And now his family are on a mission to fulfil that wish by setting up a charity, Josh's Osteosarcoma Support and Help Foundation (JOSH), in his memory.
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Josh's uncle, Matthew Graeme, said: "Josh was an absolute force to be reckoned with. He was one of the nicest kids you would ever meet and had such a dry, amazing, sense of humour.
"He was one in a million and I think he would be very proud of his family and how they are dealing with what they've had to go through."
He added: "The idea for the actual charity came about around two-and-a-half years ago. I remember Josh saying it would be nice to do this. So in a way it's his legacy, it's what he wanted to do."
JOSH will provide respite holidays and holiday accommodation to children in the North East with a life-limiting or life-threatening diagnosis of childhood cancer, allowing them and their families to make precious memories. Matthew explained that the charity will receive referrals from Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) and arrange for the families to visit a special holiday home in Northumberland, which the charity is currently looking to purchase.
And as well as recently being granted charity status, Josh's twin sister Libby has now been appointed as one of the seven charity trustees.
Matthew, 48, added: "We're so proud that Josh's name lives on. As a trustee of this charity and a chair of the trustees it's an absolute honour to be able to do what we're doing and hopefully grow this and build on the legacy that Josh has left. We're lost for words that we've got to this point, but we're over the moon to have got here and it's a massive sense of pride."
It was around Christmas 2019 when Josh had a knock and hurt his arm whilst playing rugby for his local team, Rockcliff Rugby Club. He took painkillers and rested, but on New Year's Day 2020 the then 14-year-old complained to his mum Linzi that the pain was getting worse.
They attended an out of hours doctors surgery for an emergency appointment and after a number of tests, Josh was referred to a consultant at the RVI on January 6 that year. But after further tests and a biopsy, the family received the devastating news that Josh had Osteosarcoma in his right shoulder.
He was admitted to the teenage cancer unit at the RVI on January 13, 2020, and was due to start chemotherapy on the 15th. However, the day before treatment was due to begin the family received further heartbreaking news that the aggressive cancer had spread throughout his body.
He passed away with his family by his side on May 5, 2021 and his funeral was held the day after what would have been his 16th birthday.
Josh is a huge miss to his family, including Libby and his two younger sisters Elena, 11, and Philippa, eight. But Josh's legacy will live on through the charity set up in his name.
Matthew added: "The name of the charity spells out Josh's name and the logo for the charity is his name with a star above it at the end. That came about because that's the way his name was written in a card after he passed away.
"His mum had wrote a card and had wrote on from her, the girls - Josh's sisters- and she put Josh's name in the card too with a star next to it. I was sitting looking at the card one night and I thought that's the name and it all seemed to come together from there."
The charity is currently setting up a bank account for donations, but is temporarily raising funds via a GoFundMe page, which was set up to help Josh before he passed away. Updates on the charity and new ways to donate will be announced via the JOSH Facebook page, here, or Instagram profile, here.
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