Rheagan Hendry was named Inspirational Woman of the Year for the work she's been doing in her mother's memory. Amanda Griffiths met her Photography by Kirsty Thompson
It was a bitter-sweet moment as Rheagan Hendry stood on stage to collect the Inspirational Woman of the Year award. The one person who really mattered wasn’t there to share her success.
Rheagan, daughter of former Premier League footballer and ex-Blackpool FC manager Colin Hendry, was accepting the accolade for the charity she had set up.
The one-time model and singer turned business woman from Lytham St Annes, set up the Denise Hendry Foundation in memory of her mother, who died at the age of 43 after ten years of ill-health following a liposuction operation that went horribly wrong.
‘I hope she would be proud of me,’ says Rheagan. ‘I wouldn’t have got here without her. People often think I’ve relied on my dad’s contacts to get here, but I’ve done this all by myself.
‘Yes, it has been with incredible support from my family, but I have found a strength since we lost mum, a strength I never knew I had and that’s what got me through the last two and a half years.’
The charity aims to support and advise people who have been affected by cases of medical negligence.
‘I’d spoken to mum about doing something like this,’ says Rheagan, aged 22. ‘It was something she wanted to pursue after she got better – she didn’t want to see anyone else suffer the way she had.’
The story of Denise’s shattering ilnness made headlines across the country. ‘Everyone had an opinion,’ says Rheagan. ‘There were people out there saying mum deserved it – they believed she was a typical footballer’s wife.
‘But she lived for her family, for dad and the kids. She was the homely type, she loved being a wife and mother, that was all she lived for. To have that taken away so tragically was awful. She got better but the next seven years with us weren’t the same.
‘It took a long rehabilitation period to get through that initial operation. She didn’t eat for two years, she was fed through IV lines constantly. We were looking after her at home and as time progressed she needed further operations on her stomach and digestive system to put right the damage.
‘I think the hardest thing for us as a family in the last few months was not being able to say the things we wanted because she was drifting in and out of consciousness.’
It was on her sister’s 12th birthday when they got the phone call to say they should prepare for the worst and bring people in to say their goodbyes.
‘I remember thinking “not today”. It was a ten year battle for us as a family and, after the inquest, I thought now is the time to start turning things around - the foundation is about turning what happened into a positive.
‘I’m certainly not in the position to say that a person has definitely suffered medical negligence, I can only really tell them what happened to us. In mum’s case it was from cosmetic surgery, but when I began to research it I realised there was much more to it than that, with medical negligence through surgery more widespread.
‘With any operation there’s a risk, but I feel like for us, as a family, that risk was never really explained.’
Rheagan says she has no vendetta against the health care system. ‘I’ve come across some amazing people in that area, especially when I had my daughter in hospital.
‘It’s not about telling them they’re doing a bad job – they’re not. I want the risks explained better to people, not just to protect the patient but the surgeon too.
‘We want to build a bridge between the health care system and the public. I don’t want to see another family suffer the way mine did. It’s a really hard situation, I literally became a mother to my brother and sister from the age of 12, helping my dad cook tea and look after them – it was never a problem for me but meant I had to grow up so much more quickly.
‘I have such passion for what I’m doing, I really believe I can make a difference and think that my passion and determination is what helped me win the award. It is appreciated on a personal level but it’d great for the foundation as well as it gives it so much more credibility.
‘We’re fundraising and creating sponsorship links but trying to find creative ways to do that. We’d like to be a link between the hospitals and the public, I certainly don’t want to step on anyone’s toes but we’re there for people to speak too if they want too.
‘At the end of the day I’m never going to say to someone don’t have cosmetic surgery, but what I would say is to make sure you know the risks and find someone you trust and feel comfortable with. It’s such a quick fix now that people are going abroad and having it done in hotel rooms, it’s so scary when you delve into it.’
For more information about the charity see www.denisehendryfoundation.com
