Northampton husband with terminal cancer raises £14,000 for 'amazing' hospice in town

A Northampton husband with terminal cancer has raised a staggering £14,000 for an ‘amazing’ hospice in the town.

In May 2022, Richard Davies was told he had three months left to live after being diagnosed with stage four colon cancer which had spread 'wildly' through his body.

In the last year since his diagnosis, he has gone on to raise a huge amount of awareness, money and goodwill from all those who have heard his story.

Richard’s latest achievement is raising a whopping £14,352 in just five days for Cynthia Spencer Hospice in Kettering Road, where he has recently been receiving symptom management.

The 37-year-old said: “We raised that £14,00 in four or five days. The experience I have had here, it couldn’t have been for a better cause, really.

"Going into a hospice is obviously a scary thing, I think that hospices are largely associated with end of life care but they do much more than that: symptom management, pain management, work with families through bereavement.

"The whole team there provide a different level of empathy. It’s never good to be in there but they looked after me so well. In a hospice there is genuine empathy, genuine care.”

Richard credits his large following of 13,000 people on his Instagram page, Bowel Bro, for being able to raise such a large amount in such a short space of time.

He said: “I’m fortunate enough to have grown an organic following on Instagram. I felt I needed to get a lot of the information out of me to raise awareness, share the journey and try and stop anyone from falling into the shoes I’m in.

“To be able to raise this kind of money in a short period of time is incredible. The privilege of having my Instagram platform does put a smile on my face.

"I’ve also sold my business so I was able to contribute towards things close to my heart – I was able to put £5,000 of my own money into this fundraiser.”

Asked how his health is currently doing, Richard said ‘not great’ but that he managed to enjoy his one-year wedding anniversary this week at the hospice with his wife Lisa.

He said: “It’s not great. There have been loads of complications. Chemo again tomorrow. It’s not looking positive but I just keep going.

“I’m just trying to plod along. It was our anniversary this week since we got married so it’s been nice to celebrate in the hospice.”

Rich ended by saying: “Big shout out to the team at Cynthia Spencer from the consultants down. Incredible people. Shout out to everyone who donated.”

To donate to Cynthia Spencer Hospice, click here.

Cynthia Spencer has been contacted for comment.

Richard recently released a book called ‘A Significant Find’ which he describes as a love letter to his wife.

He said: “The most important thing, and the whole reason for it, was to leave it for my wife Lisa. She's incredibly happy she knows she's going to have something to feel connected to me once I'm gone. The book is just a love letter to Lisa."

Click here to buy the book.