I remember that on the 25 May 2014 when our son got diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and we moved into the room that would become his home in the times to come a nurse said to me that we'd get used to them and they would become like family. I felt so angry and wanted to scream that it wouldn't happen because we didn't want them to be our family.
How wrong could I be? Our little boy came back from the initial bit of his treatment so broken. He lost his spark under a cloud of fear. He had developed an intense phobia of needles and was scared that they were going to be involved in every medical procedure from height measurements to chest x-rays. Nobody in a uniform could come near him and he barely moved. He'd grown so thin and small in every single way.
But the team in Hereford worked so hard to make him smile and he gained more of himself back each and every day. They took the time to get to know him. They treated the boy he is instead of the illness he has and we couldn't be more grateful. we were scared he'd never come back to us but he has.
From the physio who created games with minions to get Oscar moving from his bedspace, to the nurses who knocked on his door with special passwords and stopped him having cannulas by finding alternatives, to the play specialists who make him laugh through the hard times and decorate his room when we are in for a period of time to make it more of his own space and to the sodexo women who remember that Oscar liked the peach yoghurts and cheese and tomato pizzas.
I cannot list the millions of ways that the people on the children ward have made Oscar's experiences easier on him and on us as a family. So I wanted to try and do something in return. Because of the unpredictable nature of Leukaemia and the unprompted hospital stays I couldn't do another run so I had to think of something I could do to raise money even in the event that we had to go in to hospital. So then it came to me.... Dress up for a week to raise money for Hereford County Hospital Children's Ward and paediatric oncology unit.
Facebook helped me with the decision to be a superhero (although I may also be a princess because my daughter will get upset if I don't at least once.)
Each £100 I raise I will do it for a day up to £500 which will mean dressing up for a week! £750 will see me hitting the nightlife in Hereford and for £1000 I will do a run in an outfit.
So please donate to the most wonderful people who have become like family... Even if they usually take blood when we visit!
Thank you.