When Serious Illness Shapes Family Life

For Tobi’s family, so much of life had happened around medical care. Tobi and his twin brother, Tomi, were born with sickle cell disease. After a serious infection led to life-threatening complications, Tobi later received a bone marrow transplant.

There had been hospital stays. Treatment. Worry. So when the family arrived at Over The Wall, our SeriousFun camp in the United Kingdom, getting away together meant something.

A Place to Simply Be Together

At camp, Tobi and his family could play, laugh, and enjoy time together. Medical support was there when they needed it, without being at the center of every moment.

And they met other families who understood.

There was less need to explain what they had been through or why certain things were different. They were surrounded by people who knew something about life with a serious medical condition—and what it can ask of a whole family.

For Tobi’s family, that feeling of being understood mattered. Camp gave them time to reconnect, make new memories, and enjoy being a family outside the routines of medical care.

Finding a Place to Belong

That’s part of what can change at camp.

When medical needs are supported, there can be more room for everything else: family time, friendship, fun, and the feeling that you’re not going through it alone. For Tobi and his family, Over The Wall became that kind of place—a community where they could simply be together and belong.

And sometimes, knowing you’re not alone can change everything.