Member Article

Kind Hearted Property Expert Donates to Charity

A kind hearted property manager has pledged the annual rental income from one of his properties to a charity helping to research treatment for leukaemia.

Angus Griffin from Great Bookham in Surrey owns Letterbox Property Solutions with the majority of his property portfolio located in his native North East of England. Originally from Cleadon in South Tyneside, Angus moved to Nottingham to study at university where he met fellow student Ruchit Patel and they became great friends.

Ruchit and his wife Annu from Loudwater in Hertfordshire later had a daughter, Kaiya who sadly contracted lymphoblastic leukaemia. Despite an international appeal for people from the South Asian community to join the donor register and an anonymous bone marrow donor being found, the six-year-old contracted a virus in hospital which fatally attacked her kidneys and liver.

At Kaiya’s funeral, everyone was given a card designed by Kaiya. The inspirational card asked the holder to do a good deed, no matter how small, then pass the card onto someone else to continue doing good in Kaiya’s name. The card pulled at Angus’s heart strings and he decided to do something positive to help.

“I wanted to fulfil the promise I made when I saw the card that Kaiya had designed. I work in the property sector so I decided that I would use the profits from one of my house lettings in Sunderland to help others in need.”

Angus has now completed the renovation of a three bedroomed house in Sunderland which has been leased to a charity. A plaque has been placed on the door saying, “Kaiya’s Home” and the profits from the rental agreement are expected to bring around £6000 per year to the Children with Cancer UK charity.

The donation from Angus isn’t the only positive thing to come out of the tragic loss of Kaiya. Her mother Annu has created and printed a workbook to help children in hospital with cancer understand the processes involved in their care and to help the child cope with stress, hospital visits and going back to school. Annu explained where the idea originated from:

“When Kaiya was diagnosed, things were moving very fast. We had medical professionals working hard to help her and although they were trying to explain things as clearly as they could, when you are in a state of shock it’s hard to take it all in as an adult never mind as a five-year-old child.

“Kaiya and I sat down and talked about her situation but it was when I gave her a book to write down her fears, thoughts and questions that I realised that this was a way to help her and others like her.”

It is hoped that the workbook called “My Brave Journey” will be used to help young people and parents on every children’s cancer ward in the UK.

“I’m incredibly grateful to Angus for his kind donation which will help children with cancer and I also hope that Kaiya’s Brave Journey will help others cope with what is a very stressful time for the young person undergoing treatment, their families and friends,” said Annu.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Keith Newman .