My son Cameron is 15 years old and an amazing athlete. This is quite incredible, as he was born with a heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries and was operated on as a baby. Not only that, on his way to Guy's Hospital at two days old, the ambulance carrying him was turned over in a serious road traffic accident, and Cameron was found with no heartbeat at all and a depressed skull fracture. By a miracle, one cannula had stayed within a blood vessel, and so he was saved. The skull fracture meant he had to wait a fortnight for his life-saving heart operation, however.
All in all, his dad, sister and I spent a month living in hospital accommodation in London. When Cam was a toddler, we raised nearly three thousand pounds to give back to the hospital and supporting charities.
I am fundraising again, many years later, as recently Cam was invited to The Evelina Children's' Hospital for exercise-based tests, as he is a rapidly-growing teenager, and thought to be the fittest paediatric heart patient the hospital had ever seen! He and I stayed overnight in hospital accommodation, as the tests ran over two days.
The tests were a great success and showed that Cam's heart is in wonderful condition, he has an incredible VO2max, and is actually a bit of a legend .... this was amazing for me to hear (a mum always worries) and great for Cam to know he can keep pushing himself as an athlete, safely. I also had a special moment when we met one of the nurses who had taken care of him in ICU in The Evelina at Guy's when he had his op; you never forget.
So please make a donation towards the Evelina Children's Hospital so we can give back and continue to support the wonderful work they do.
I'm running The Beachy Head Marathon on 28th October 2017, which is one of the toughest off-roaders in the UK - just check out that elevation map !!