After the death of his son, Jon Earp composed a beautiful song in his memory. The song is available in CD format directly from Edward's Trust, priced at just £3.00 (exc p&p).

Let Jon and Tracey tell you in their own words about:

The Journey of "I'm Still Here"

"To understand the lyrics of the song I need to tell you about the journey we have travelled.

Adam was a young, fun loving character with an infectious personality. He was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in April 2008 after suddenly falling ill. Despite the realisation of how ill he was Adam never stopped seeing the fun side of life. He needed chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant if he was to have any chance of survival. Despite the rigors of his treatment Adam always greeted everyone with a smile. His playful nature and sense of humour made him a favourite with the nursing staff and doctors. He was considerate too and never wanted to put out any of the staff who were looking after him. So much so when his stitches came undone on his Hickman line and started to bleed everywhere in the middle of the night, instead of pressing the buzzer he walked down to the nursing station so he did not wake the man next to him. That was the type of person he was.

After successfully coming through his treatment Adam was winning his battle with Leukaemia and was in remission. He returned to work in the early part of 2009 and started to put his life back together, things were looking up.

Adam developed a cough in April 2009 which soon deteriorated into severe breathing difficulties. He was diagnosed with Graft Versus Host Disease. Despite being on an enormous amount of steroids and anti rejection drugs Adam's health was deteriorating. Photopheresis treatment was offered as a last resort to try and put a halt to the GVHD at Rotherham General. On his first day of treatment everything was going great; he had come through the treatment fine and was just being unclipped from the machine when he blacked out. Despite the best efforts of the medical staff Adam never regained consciousness. His body reacted to the treatment and went into anaphylactic shock, his lungs were too weak to cope and his body went into shut down.

Adam passed away in the early hours of Thursday 27th August 2009.

I wrote the song “I’m Still Here” a few weeks after Adam's funeral as a way of trying to cope with intense emotions at that time. This was my way of coming to terms with our loss but also trying to look on the positive side as well. I know that sounds a bit strange but I like to think that a person is only really gone if we forget about them. After we had got through Christmas we spoke about using the song to raise money for a charity. Tracey and I decided that Edwards Trust would be the chosen Charity after the amazing work they are still doing with our family. Tracey went into action organising everything while I focused on the song. After months of hard work we finally finished the CD with the support from the staff of Edwards Trust, Evi and Simon especially. I hope the message in the song can help with your journey and help you remember that the ones you have lost are still here, in your hearts and minds they live on."

Jon & Tracey Earp