Rally for Rudi

25/05/2024

Tomorrow Team Running for Rudi (Dad, big brother Lewis and Auntie) will be running the Edinburgh half marathon...it's not too late to support us and everyone fighting brain tumours
Brain Tumour Research

Help Benjamin Abbot raise money to support Brain Tumour Research

22/02/2023

Iris made a couple of Thank You cards with the first batch of pressed flowers from her new flower press 🌺🌸
(present for good behaviour ☺️)

So this seems like a good time to thank some of the people who really supported our campaign - without whom we wouldn’t have had that hope that carried us forward for most of last year.

This is by NO MEANS a list of everyone!!
Please forgive any omissions (it’s one of the reasons I have never posted before now - there’s been a few drafts.. was scared of missing people out!)

It’s worth trying to name a few beautiful souls, though, who really stepped up for us!

A very special mention has to go to my good friend Ben Slow who single handedly thought up and then created the amazing Art Auction - raising a staggering £27,000!!

The support we have been shown from our local community has been overwhelming from the first instance and we’re so grateful to be part of such a loving neighbourhood!

The love and assistance from further afield was utterly unexpected and is something that offers us ongoing comfort and a sense that Rudi really mattered!!

If the cure for Rudi’s illness had been love, compassion and generosity, he would without doubt be with us now!

THANK YOU ONE AND ALL
AND PLEASE KEEP SUPPORTING GREAT CHARITIES LIKE

The myth of the rarity of childhood cancers needs dispelled and new MODERN medicines and therapies need funding NOW!

💜🙏🏼💜

(Untagged on image as over the 20 quota .edinburgh )

22/01/2023

Hello to everyone in our wonderful community 💜
——
On Thursday 19/01/2023 we had a beautiful family burial ceremony for our little warrior Rudi.
——
It was an intimate time for us to say farewell, and both celebrate his life as well as grieve his passing.
——
To mark the occasion and as a monument to him, Rudi’s Great Aunt Viv started a ‘grove’ of trees in Rudi’s name in Dungreggan in the Highlands of Scotland.
——
This is a beautiful project that is re-wilding the Scottish Highlands with indigenous trees and allowing the wildlife to follow suit.
——
We LOVE this philosophy and it’s a perfect way of allowing Rudi’s presence to flourish with every passing year.
——
If you want to send your LOVE to Rudi and the family and you’re not sure how - buy a tree to add to his grove for £6 - and please still donate to 🙏🏼
——
We feel that this grove is the perfect way for people to show their love and empathy, while also looking after the natural environment that Rudi adored! 💜🫶🏼🌈
——
To find the page simply copy and paste the link below and you can contribute to making this ‘grove’ a FOREST! 🌲🌲🌲

https://treesforlife.org.uk/groves/438249/?fbclid=PAAaY1ocodrPY9vMpeD7TqBLAifgxmodrzNM9eTLmeF1ZJN5-LNm24LLoohMw

At this point the whole family would also like to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU TO EVERY SINGLE PERSON, BOTH ONLINE AND IN THE LOCAL COMMUNITY, THAT HAVE BEEN SUPPORTING BOTH RUDI, AND ALL OF US THROUGHOUT THIS ENTIRE JOURNEY!
——
Every single message of support means the world, and the hundreds, or thousands, that we’ve not managed to see yet will all be read and appreciated with the same energy they were written.
——
Rudi would be, is, so proud of the movement of sheer LOVE, CARE and COMMUNITY that his life has created.
He may have only been here for 8 3/4 years but he made a big impression!
——
Rest easy beautiful boy 🙏🏼🌈💜

17/01/2023

After Rudi passed away we got him into his well worn favourite Hearts kit, complete with darned holes in the knees of the socks from a knee slide every goal he scored!
(bear in mind 5 & 6 year old’s matches with score lines of 35-21 😅 it’s a LOT of knee slides)
——
Mum then painted his nails in his trademark rainbow colours. 🌈
He’s rocked these confidently, with his sassy style to any and every occasion since he was a titch.
——
He has 4 bracelets on - one from his French Grandpa, his little sister Iris, his big sister Olly and his best pal Mila.
——
We’ll probably choose a few more of his favourite fashion items, like a bumbag and a few of his prized precious key rings.
He’s also wearing his Vans checkered beanie that mum bought him recently too - so he’s on point! 👌🏼
——
We’ll be burying our beloved 8 & 3/4 year old Rudi in all his favourite gear this Thursday in a very intimate family ceremony.
His big brother, Lewis, came up with the brilliant idea of that all of us paint our nails for the occasion.
——
With all this in mind, if people want to connect or show solidarity in the build up or on the day of the funeral then we ask that you please give a *donation to the
and
PAINT YOUR NAILS 🌈

*we shouldn’t be burying 8 & 3/4 year olds! Please donate 🙏🏼💜

12/01/2023

At 10:50pm on Friday 06/01/2023 our beloved and truly incredible wee warrior Rudi passed away.

In all of the last near 3 years of his illness, that day was the first time he’d shown real outward signs of struggle.

He still pushed through all the family visits stoically and waited until mum and dad’s bedtimes to quietly depart.
Some boy! Honestly!
If he’d waited even 10 more minutes we probably wouldn’t have known he was gone til morning. Thanks son 🙏🏼
His timing has always been spot on!

Although it’s an incredibly sad time for us all, we really did urge our boy to leave us that day..
We reassured him all day that we were ok for him to pass over and our souls would link up again soon.
It really felt like we guided him over that last hurdle.

It’s been a true honour for all of us to be by your side on your courageous and joyous journey through life.
You’ve taught us all so so much!

Rudi James Benoit Abbot 🕯️

26/11/2022

An amazing £1450 raised for Rally for Rudi ...thank you so much to everyone who supported the event and a very special thank you to Jenny Latto for organising!! Your support means so much 🙏❤️🙏

19/11/2022

Wow! What a rough 48 hrs Rudi has had!! 😓
——
We arrived for our follow-up appointment on Thursday morning to be told that Wednesday’s MRI has shown Rudi had *hydrocephalus… and required emergency surgery that day to install a shunt to relieve the pressure!
——
This wasn’t foreseen as a particular likely event or risk - so his symptoms of extreme fatigue over the past month had been put down to his body’s reaction to the CAR T treatment.
——
Quite a shock for everyone and not how we wanted to end the trip.. 😞
——
Our biggest worries were the cause of the hydrocephalus.. so far, the MRI is inconclusive as to whether it’s new disease or inflamed disease.
——
All we can do is pray that further down the line it’s proven to be inflammation. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
——
If the treatment is working then any disease in Rudi’s brain and spine will become inflamed as the CAR-T cells attack it.
——
The diagnosis has been further fogged as his final MRI in the UK was done without the contrast dye that clearly shows the diseased areas.
So we’re working on slightly vague and dissimilar imaging.
——
The good news is that Rudi is (obviously) being a total warrior and being discharged later today - so we’re still flying back to family in Pennsylvania tmrw en route to Scotland for Thursday. ✈️
——
We push and get ready for returning to Seattle next month for the next infusion! ✊🏼💪🏼💜

Please put Rudi into your thoughts and prayers 🙏🏼💜

*Hydrocephalus - A build-up of fluid in the cavities deep within the brain.
The extra fluid puts pressure on the brain and can cause brain damage. (See slide 3)
The CSF fluid is supposed be absorbed through the membrane around the ventricles - which hasn’t been happening.
So Rudi’s fluid has been building up in the centre of his brain.

08/11/2022

Rally for Rudi ‘draw yourself dancing’

Rudi’s pretty chuffed with his drawing for next years’ school calendar 😊🥰.

Just sent off to the school Headteacher in time for todays deadline. So good job we did it lastminute.com!

Also, Rudi starts his DOUBLE strength final 2 infusions of this trip bright and early today…so he won’t have much energy for much over the next couple of weeks…

GO CHAMP ❤️💪🏻❤️
WE PUSH ON ✊🏻 💜 ✊🏻

Childhood Cancer Advocates
Support a LIfe
Solving Kids' Cancer
Cancer Research UK

02/11/2022

Rudi SMASHED through the halfway stage of infusion today!

Only 2 left to go on this trip!!
The quantity of cells being infused is doubling for the last two, so it will be a heavy going final 2 weeks ✊🏻💪🏻.

WE PUSH ON
✊🏻❤️✊🏻🐯

Please keep sharing our page and GoFundMe
❤️🙏❤️🙏



Solving Kids' Cancer
Support a LIfe
Childhood Cancer Advocates
Grace Kelly Childhood Cancer Trust

Rally for Rudi shared a post on Instagram: "Rudi SMASHED through the halfway stage of infusion today! —— Only 2 to go on this trip!! Saying that, the quantity of cells being infused is doubling for the last two, so it’s a heavy going next 3 weeks.. 💪🏼✊🏼 —— Let’s GO champ! ✊....

15/09/2022

Seattle in 5 days! Please continue to support, follow and share 🙏❤️.

www.linktr.ee/rally4rudi

Rally for Rudi
Support a LIfe
Childhood Cancer Advocates
Solving Kids' Cancer