Les Hoey MBE celebrates 30 years of making dreams come true for sick kids

Les Hoey’s daughter Shelley spent months in hospital following her shock cancer diagnosis at the age of 12 in October 1992.

Les, who took 10 weeks off work at the time, was inspired to raise funds for Yorkhill Children’s Hospital and the Anthony Nolan Trust after Shelley received a bone marrow transplant.

Les Hoey (Image: Newsquest)

His daughter’s favourite band Boyzone were set to perform in Glasgow, and he was determined to give her the chance to meet her idols.

After pulling it off, and seeing how happy the experience made Shelley, Les was inspired to help other children who were in his daughter’s position.

Before he knew it, he was arranging for hundreds of kids to spend time with world-famous celebrities before their concerts in Glasgow, including Kylie Minogue, Shania Twain, S Club 7, Atomic Kitten, Anastasia, Westlife, Girls Aloud, Katy Perry, Biffy Clyro, Destiny’s Child, One Direction and dozens more.

Thirty years later, 61-year-old Les, who has a full-time job, still works hard to help put smiles on sick children's faces.

Newsquest (Image: Newsquest)

The Wishaw man said: “The best part is to see the kids getting better and surviving.

“But if we can take their minds off getting their treatment, that’s a big difference. I’ve seen kids get radiotherapy and you feel as if they’re not going to make a concert and sure enough, the parents phone you up and say that they’re raring to go.

“You know yourself, if you go to the dentist and come home you don’t want to go anywhere. But these kids, after getting gruelling radiotherapy and chemotherapy, they’re dancing at the concerts.

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“I’ve had parents say to me ‘they’ll just go to the meet and greet then an hour at the concert’ and before you know it, they’re still there and they don’t want to go home. It makes some difference to them.”

In 2013, Les received an MBE for his services to charity from Queen Elizabeth at Holyrood.

He said: “I had already met The Queen a few years previous, but it was just to have her talk to you.

"When it was my turn, she said, ‘just keep doing what you’re doing’ and shook my hand and that was it, but I'm glad that it was her.

“She’s passed away now. In years to come my kids and grandkids can say they met The Queen.

“The MBE didn’t really bother me. People say ‘do you take it about with you - I think I’ve seen it about four times since I got it’.

“The way I looked at it was if I got the MBE it could maybe get more clout to get the kids to meet bigger people and things like that. That’s what it meant to me.”

The following year, Les Hoey MBE DreamMaker Foundation was registered as an official charity and two caravans at Craig Tara were purchased shortly after.

These provide families who have children with life-threatening illnesses a much-needed holiday and are available nine months of the year.

“Getting the caravans had always been part of my plans,” Les said.

“When Shelley was ill, that was the nearest place we could go to, in case we needed to get to the hospital.”

The charity is currently being run by dream manager Angela Cook and dream assistant Laura Cochrane, who Les praised for their constant hard work.

Les Hoey, Angela Cook, and Laura Cochrane (Image: Newsquest)

Angela said: “We have around 500 children registered on our database at the moment and 30 waiting on the list for what we call a ‘big dream’ - which could be a meet and greet or an iPad so they can continue their studies in hospital.

“We’re a small charity, we can’t just say yes right away, unfortunately, but we’re always trying our hardest to make the kids’ dreams come true.

“It's been harder since Covid as a lot of the pop stars aren’t meeting anyone anymore. We’ve found that’s a major issue. It’s really hard because all these kids want to meet their idols and we want to try to make it happen and we’re struggling.

“But we’ve got all the other things we do. The caravans are fully booked constantly. Families get a wee break away after spending a lot of time in hospital.

“We like to try include the whole family. Of course, it’s hard on the wee ones that are sick, but illnesses affect the whole family, so we want to try to give them all experiences.”

The charity also hosts an annual ball and Christmas party to get together and raise funds.

Reflecting back over the years, Les said: “Every band that came to Glasgow I was getting requests from the hospital to sort meet and greets out and nine times out of 10 I was getting them.

“I got some big names. I remember three teenagers went to Snow Patrol, and they went backstage and played tennis with them. One of the girls confessed to me months later that she had something to tell me. She told me she kept one of their table tennis bats.

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“Katy Perry took kids on stage with her two nights in a row. I was there the first night and she pulled me aside and said, ‘do you want to take the kids on stage’. You could see her tour manager looking at her but sure enough, she did it.

“Ed Sheeran’s been a popular one. Simon Cowell - he couldn’t be a nicer guy when it comes to meeting the kids, the same as Gordon Ramsay.

“We also took 20 kids to Lapland then another 10 another year. What an experience that was. Again, the kids were all bouncing about, happy as Larry.

“Over the 30 years, it’s amazing how many of the kids are now parents themselves.”

The DreamMaker Foundation is always on the lookout for volunteers to take part in events such as the Kiltwalk and to sign up for their £1 monthly 50/50 draw for the chance to win £475, to raise funds for the charity.

Angela said: “For us, it’s all about giving to the kids because we know the difference.

"We can tell with the thank you letters we get or the smiles on their faces; we can see the difference it makes, and we just want to carry on and do our best to make as many kids smile as possible as that’s where it all started for Les.”