One to remember

Esme McGarrell, 36, Wakefield

Fake white beards strapped to our chins, fluffy red hats on our heads, my hubby Alex and I pulled our kids close.

‘Say cheese,’ I told Eva, then 7, and Alfie, 5.

Eva made the cutest elf, while Alfie was warm and cosy in his buggy.

It was December last year, and we’d had a hellish year.

Yet, despite everything, we were dressed up, determined to have some festive family fun before Alfie was back in hospital.

See, just six months earlier, in June 2020, I’d been sitting at Leeds General Infirmary, being told that he had stage 4 neuroblastoma.