A Havant family have been amazed this Christmas by a Fareham mortgage company after cancer has stormed through their lives

In the space of a year, Trevor Grant and his two children, Liam and Evie, have been through wringer as Trevor’s ex-partner, and his children’s mother, Anita, died of cancer in April.

The mum of two previously had breast cancer, but it came back, moving to her ovaries, and took her aged 47, leaving a hole in her family. Trevor, 46, took on his two children full-time but they were hit with devastating news, in September of this year, as11-year-old Liam was diagnosed with leukemia and needs three years of treatment.

Trevor said: ‘Stressed would be an understatement, it is just the unknown all of the time that is difficult.

‘Obviously I am biased but you will never meet such a chilled-out kid. He has his moments, but nine times out of ten he just seems like Liam.’

Trevor had to stop working, resulting in the family having to sofa surf and stay with family, and it was only until a few weeks ago, that they got the keys to a permanent home.

Charlotte Fairall, founder of Sophie’s Legacy, knew of Your Mortgage People, Fareham, and she decided to buddy Trevor up with the business which wanted to help someone over the festive period.

Simon Halliday, partnership manager at Your Mortgage People, has been working alongside his team to help Trevor and his children this Christmas, the first one without their mum.

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Staff went round collecting donations at the business and bought household essentials including a kettle, a toaster, a microwave, B&Q vouchers as well as Christmas presents for the children and plan to help with their Christmas dinner.

Simon said: ‘The company I work for, they started doing some fundraising for Sophie’s Legacy this year because they moved in opposite us and we built up a good relationship with Charlotte, and she told us about what Trevor and his family were going through.

‘They haven’t got much and they were sofa surfing and they actually got housed last Thursday but we wanted to help.

‘I lost my mum years ago and they have lost their mum to cancer so it struck a note with me and I also have kids. You can go and pay money into a pot at Tesco, but you don’t really know where that money is going. I think with Sophie’s Legacy we know where that money is going in the local area and you can see the people that have been helped by them.’

Simon also started a fundraiser for the family to help raise money to get them a new car after someone recently reversed into Trevor’s previous car, writing it off. They have been fortunate enough to be able to buy Trevor a new car to help him get to and from hospital, and they are now hoping that, with the generous donations from others, that they can pay for a few months of petrol.

The team also bought Christmas presents for Liam and Evie.

Trevor added: ‘They have been absolutely amazing, they are doing presents for my kids, they have helped me out with all of the kitchen stuff . They are just great. Everybody has been great to us.’