Marking his 40th birthday with a charity skydive, Simon Cross felt on top of the world.
He had raised £1,000 for Make-A-Wish UK and liked their work so much he began volunteering for them.
Four years later, the dad of two was on the set of Coronation Street with his young daughter Hannah as she was granted a wish by the charity after being diagnosed with cancer.
“After seeing the whole process from the inside and helping families through the most heartbreaking moments of their lives, suddenly the roles were reversed,” says Simon.
“I found myself on the other side, turning to Make-A-Wish for something that could bring comfort and joy to my own sick child.
“When we found out how ill Hannah was, our world fell apart.”
He was an environmental health officer with the RAF in 2012 when 11-year-old Hannah was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive soft tissue cancer. It was already stage four.
Simon, 52, says: “By this point I’d volunteered with Make-A-Wish for three years and I’d always been in awe of how families I met dealt with what they were facing. I’d felt huge empathy for them, but I never pictured myself going through it.”
Hannah had a six-month course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Simon says: “She lost all her hair and parts of that time felt horrific.
“But Hannah was brilliant. However horrible it got, she kept on smiling. She was inspirational.”
Afterwards, things seemed hopeful. She continued with maintenance chemo and, as her strength built up and her hair started to grow back, Simon and wife Donna, 45, had more reason to be positive.
They then decided to reach out to Make-A-Wish UK, this year’s Mirror Christmas Appeal charity.
Simon, of Sleaford, Lincs, says: “I’d seen how having a wish granted could give families a real lift.”
Hannah, then 12, asked the charity to arrange a Corrie visit for her and her family. Simon says the treat in November 2013 was “wonderful”.
He adds: “Make-A-Wish arranged a trip to Manchester over a couple of days. We were picked up in a limo from our hotel and taken to Granada Studios.
“Hannah loved it. I remember we were greeted by Kate Ford, who plays Tracy Barlow, and she was lovely to us all.
“Hannah loved walking around the set and seeing the cast. She got lots of autographs and loved meeting David Neilson, who plays Roy Cropper.”
Hannah and her older brother Callum even had a stint as extras. Simon says: “She could feel normal for a day. She could forget about hospitals and scans and chemo and have a fun day with her family where none of that mattered.”
Then, just after Christmas in 2013, Hannah noticed a lump in her neck and was taken back to hospital.
It was on the day her appearance on Corrie was broadcast in January 2014 that doctors gave the family the news that she had relapsed. “Still we hoped for a miracle,” says Simon, who will share her story at tonight’s Make-A-Wish Ball in London.
She had more chemo but by September doctors said there was nothing more they could do. “We took her home from hospital and had her there for six days before we lost her on September 18, 2014,” Simon says. He adds his involvement with the charity gave him – as well as his wife and son Callum, now 22 – a reason to stay positive.
Simon says: “Everyone is different in how they grieve, but for me carrying on with Make-A-Wish helped.” The year after Hannah’s death, Simon set about an amazing challenge in her honour.
“She was 13 when we lost her,” he says. “So I decided to do 13 half marathons. I raised money for a number of charities, including Make-A-Wish.
“I had a sign with me with a picture of Hannah. Every time I was struggling I remembered all she had been through and it helped me keep going.”
He still volunteers with the charity and says of the granted wish: “We’ll never forget the joy it brought her.”
