Mum felt sick after late son’s charity defrauded

Natalie Ridler, Morgan’s mother who founded Morgan’s Army, said she would not let the situation “make me harder”

A mum felt "a bit sick" after a woman admitted defrauding a charity set up in her late son’s name.

Charlotte Blackwell, 41, from Bridgend, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation and trying to gain £4,000 for herself.

She targeted Morgan’s Army, which was founded after three-year-old Morgan Ridler died last year of a rare cancer.

She was sentenced to 10 months in prison, suspended for 21 months, ordered to do 180 hours of community service and given a night-time curfew.

Natalie Ridler, Morgan’s mother who founded Morgan’s Army, said she would not let the situation “make me harder”.

Mrs Ridler said she received an application from a woman to help fund treatment abroad for "a child who had relapsed".

But weeks after supporting Blackwell with fundraising for treatment, Mrs Ridler found out she had lied.

Based in Gorseinon, near Swansea, Morgan’s Army supports families facing grief and cancer treatment.

Mrs Ridler said she helped Blackwell with fundraising for treatment, including setting up a GoFundMe page.

She said she reached out to other charities who specialised in this area, but noticed Blackwell was reluctant to accept help from elsewhere.

"I spoke to some charities and although they were familiar with this family because they were involved in a cancer diagnosis some years ago, they said this family hadn’t relapsed and weren’t back or looking for treatment," Mrs Ridler said.

"When I tried to ring the mother, she wouldn’t answer the phone and kept coming up with excuses. I asked her outright... there was radio silence."

Morgan Ridler, from Swansea, died in palliative care after he was diagnosed in 2021 at the age of two

Mrs Ridler contacted the police and the Charity Commission and was able to freeze the GoFundMe page and get people’s donations returned.

She said she spent several weeks speaking to Blackwell, "trying to support her emotionally through palliative care and trying to raise the funds for treatment".

"It made me feel like I had failed the charity. I thought that our checks were thorough enough," she said.

"It highlighted how naïve I may be, that even if families have been through horrendous things that we have, that they would still try and do things like this.”

Mrs Ridler said it made her feel "a bit sick", but she added: "I’m determined to live by the life lessons that Morgan taught me.

"To be empathetic, to be compassionate and to love and trust. I won’t let a situation like this make me harder."