Estate agency couple launch charity after cancer ordeal

A pair of husband and wife estate agents are launching a charitable foundation to help cancer sufferers after their own terrible ordeal, which could easily have lost them their business.

Rocky Langley, managing director of Langley Estate Agents in Beckenham, Kent, and his wife Cherie, who is a partner in the business that they started in 2010, married last July, surrounded by friends and family.

The couple, who have children aged two and one, had a wonderful day, but just one week later Rocky was diagnosed with rapid and aggressive Grade Four lymphoma.

Admitted to the Royal Marsden, Rocky had to endure months of treatment, including a stem cell transplant, chemotherapy and radiotherapy – with all the side-effects involved.   

His wife meanwhile had to look after the children and run the business single-handed, while spending every evening at the hospital for eight months.

It is the kind of situation in which a small family business can go under. Fortunately, friends and relatives rallied round with both moral and financial support, and today the Langleys are thankful that Rocky is now doing well and the business is thriving.

The Langley Foundation, launching in January, has been set up in acknowledgement of all the help that the immensely grateful couple had.

It recognises the importance of taking away the immediate financial burdens of people in their situation.

As the Langleys say, the pressure of a new diagnosis or disability can result in homes being possessed, businesses going under, and added heartache for families who are already going through enough.

The Langley Foundation will give up to £3,000 in grants to families with a small business who are in the kind of situation in which the Langleys found themselves. It will also signpost to other services which can help.

Although the Langley Foundation does not launch until the New Year, work has already started on fundraising. The aim is to help 20 people in its first year of operation.

Rocky and Cherie are appealing for people – perhaps readers of EAT and our advertisers? – to run their own fundraising events, dig into their own pockets or contribute £25 a year for a quarterly newsletter. Their own business leads the way, with Langley Estate Agents contributing a percentage of its own profits.

https://www.langleyestateagents.co.uk/about-us.html