Eddie co-founded Children with Cancer UK with his wife Marion over 35 years ago after tragically losing two of their children - Paul and Jean - to cancer. Before he passed away, Paul asked his parents to promise to help other children with leukaemia.

As a force for good, Eddie was relentless in his mission to help as many families affected by childhood cancer as possible. Under his leadership and enduring dedication, he helped Children with Cancer UK grow from a small memorial charity based in a one-bedroom flat, into the leading childhood cancer charity steadfast in its funding of childhood cancer research and an organisation that has helped thousands of families affected by cancer.

Eddie’s unwavering vision has had an undeniable impact on childhood cancer and the families we continue to support. Since 1988 survival rates overall have risen from 64 percent to 84 percent, and in relation to leukaemia from 60 percent to 90 percent. This is a legacy that would mean more to Eddie than any tribute or memorial.

Cliff O’Gorman, Eddie's son, remembering his father:

“It has been an education and a privilege to have worked alongside and supported my father Eddie for 35 years in his mission to save the lives of children with cancer. Following the tragic loss of his son Paul and then his daughter Jean a few months later Eddie started a small memorial charity which over the years was to become Children with Cancer UK; the leading national children’s charity funding research into Childhood Cancer. Many people, from Princess Diana, who inaugurated the charity, to celebrities and thousands of people across the nation warmed to his story and to Eddie’s vision of the end of childhood cancer and helped him over those years to raise £290 million before his retirement. Many of the cancer research projects he funded resulted in new treatments and have perhaps saved thousands of young lives bringing nearer his vision of an end to childhood cancer. Perhaps Eddie’s legacy is to remind us that with determination and an unshakeable, passionate belief in a cause people can turn terrible tragedy into a great cause for good.”


Eddie’s statement

“Charity comes first”