A Tale of Four Septembers

I started this blog as a gaming blog. On the very rare occasion, it’s touched on my personal life, but always as to how my personal life relates to gaming. This post is no different I guess, although it may be slightly more personal.

I’m inspired to write this post as a result of Matt Corley (and his young daughter Harper) and their Indiegogo project “Harper’s Tale” which at the time of writing has raised almost £14,000 for the charity Friends of Kids with Cancer.

It’s an adventure written by both Matt and Harper in the weeks after Harper was diagnosed with Leukaemia. I listened to his interview with James Introcaso on the Table Top Babble podcast. I listened as Matt’s voice broke with emotion when he told the tale of his daughter’s diagnosis and the immediate days after.

When you’re told your kid has cancer, it feels like the world has opened up and swallowed you. There isn’t a darkness like it. You can barely breathe. I speak from experience. In September 2016 – the 21st of September to be precise – our (then 8 year old) son Sam was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.

September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month. This is the fourth September in a row that we have lived with childhood cancer in our family. Every day this month, I’ve worn my little gold ribbon on my t-shirt or jumper. I’ve yet to have anyone ask me what it represents. Ultimately, that’s not why I wear it. It’s just a small gold badge of defiance to acknowledge that we are still here and we are still going through it and that we remember the kids we met on the journey who didn’t make it through four Septembers.

Since diagnosis, Sam and I have bonded over a shared love of D&D, either with family, friends or complete strangers at great events like Conpulsion and Tabletop Scotland. It seems appropriate then for me to ask that if you are reading this and you have a few quid to spare, that you back Matt and Harper’s project. In Childhood Cancer Awareness month, it also seems appropriate to make this slightly personal blog post.

You can back Harper’s Tale on Indiegogo here.