My name is Rebecca and i'm a 28 year old mum to two small boys.  I'm also a nurse on a neonatal unit, caring for premature and sick babies.

 

I've been pondering doing something like a run for a while, i enjoy a challenge and it seemed like it would be a good way to get fit, i also thought it would be a great way to raise money and awareness for a good cause.  I haven't done any running since i was in high school, which feels (and to be fair, was) a long time ago! At that time i was in the athletics team but was more of a sprinter than a long distance runner.  These days my sprinting is reserved for those occasions when i see my youngest child putting something in his mouth that shouldn't be there and have to dash from one end of a room to another!

 

Nonetheless, I signed up for the Bupa Great Manchester Run in October, knowing that I wanted to raise funds for someone, but it wasn't until a couple of weeks later when i found myself with some spare time one evening that i was catching up with some reading online and i thought of Findlay and Iona.

 

I first heard about Findlay through an online parenting forum that i joined in April 2009 when pregnant with my first son Toby.  Findlay had been born premature, his Mum Charlotte kept a journal for him on the forum and i followed it for updates, which is when i first heard about his very rare chromosomal abnormality, Trisomy 12q.  Fast forward two years and i was pregnant, again, and still following Charlotte's (who was also expecting another baby) journey through her journal entries on the forum and Iona was born a few months before our second son, Rudy.  Iona was also premature and has the same rare chromosomal abnormality as her big brother.

 

I can only speak for myself here, but becoming a parent to two children has been the single most wonderful and yet hardest thing  have ever done! It has pushed me to and well beyond what i thought i was capable of, and rewarded me for it a thousand times over.  To have that experience and in addition to that also have the experience of your children having such complex, long-term medical needs is something i can only begin imagine through having read Charlotte's journal.

 

Reading about Findlay and Iona's condition, about the difficulties they have had to overcome, about the progress they've made, about the obstacles they still face and about their experiences as a family is at times sad, at other times joyous, and always, above all else, inspiring.

 

In short, i can think of no better people to raise money for on my very first run.

 

You can read more about Findlay and Iona here:

 

www.fundraisingforfindlay.co.uk

 

or on Facebook:

 

http://www.facebook.com/FundraisingForFindlay

 

 

 

 

 

 

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