The Angel Mums group, including Nelly Willers, from Elmswell, has won Team Fundraiser of the Year at GoCardless JustGiving Awards
A group of 25 mums who have all lost their children to brain tumours were honoured at last night’s GoCardless JustGiving Awards after raising over £120,000 for charity.
Known as the Angel Mums, the group of mothers, including Harry Crick’s mum Nelly Willers from Elmswell, near Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket, found one another through social media after they all devastatingly lost their children to incurable brain tumours.
The group won the Team Fundraiser of the Year Award at a star-studded event in London, hosted by British broadcaster Rylan Clark.
Starting as a group of eight, the Angel Mums set out on a mission to ensure their children’s lives were not lost in vain.
In October 2023, five of the Angel Mums took part in a charity skydive and raised over £79,000 for the Tessa Jowell Foundation, a charity dedicated to transforming the research, care and treatment that children with brain tumours receive in the UK.
Since then, as other mothers have devastatingly lost their children, the Angel Mums have expanded into a group of 25.
Together, the group have raised an additional £40,000 through their Earth, Wind and Fire fundraiser which has seen them climb to the top of Mount Snowdon, take on an aeroplane wing walk and on 19 October this year they will walk across hot coals.
Nelly’s son Harry was diagnosed with a brain tumour in December 2020 and died at the age of two on October 13, 2021.
On the ‘Our Harry, Our Hero’ Facebook page, Nelly said: “What an incredible evening, I still can’t believe we won. The Angel Mums are the JustGiving fundraising team of the year 2024!
“There were so many amazing and inspiring people in one room last night, it really was truly special.
“I am so so proud to be part of such a wonderful group of women. Even though we live with the most unimaginable pain and suffering everyday, we have found a love and bond like no other. We are stronger together and together we will continue to honour our beautiful Angels and keep fighting for change for brain tumours.”
Accepting the Team Fundraiser of the Year Award, Louise Fox, an Angel Mum from Bedfordshire, said: “This is more than winning an award to us, it's having our children honoured and raising much-needed awareness of the desperate plight of brain tumours.
“We didn't know that brain tumours kill more children than any other cancer until it was too late, and our children's lives were cut desperately short.
“Our children deserve to be here, yet they are not. We desperately wanted to save them, but we couldn't.
“This is beyond painful, and we carry this pain every second of our lives. We want to channel that pain and our energy into making a difference for other children diagnosed with a brain tumour - in both their journey and eventually the outcome.”
She added: “To our children up there in the sky – we miss you with every breath, this is for you and all of the other brain tumour angels.”
The Angel Mums were one of eight winners announced at the ceremony. Overall, there were more than 18,000 public nominations this year followed by over 50,000 votes between all award finalists.
Between the 21 finalists and Special Recognition Award winner at this year’s GoCardless JustGiving Awards over £16 million has been raised for good causes.
This year’s finalists were shortlisted by a panel of nine judges including professional strictly dancer Amy Dowden, broadcaster Adele Roberts and TV personality Jake Quickenden.
Host Rylan said: “It was incredible to host last night’s GoCardless JustGiving awards to celebrate the amazing work the winners and finalists have done this year to raise money for causes close to their hearts. They should all be really proud of themselves!”
Pascale Harvie, president and general manager of JustGiving, said: "Since the Angel Mums started their incredible work to fundraise for and raise awareness of brain tumour research, we have been in complete awe of their strength and determination.”
