We are a group of dental professionals from Bristol Othodontics hoping to raise money by climbing Snowdon for our colleagues son, Benjamin. Benjamin was diagnosed with a rare blood disease and has been bravely battling it ever since. We hope to raise £1,000 to donate to the Oncology day beds ward in Bristol Royal Children's Hopsital who have done a fantastic job in looking after Benjamin and his family at this incredibly hard time. Below is Benjamin's story so far in his Mothers words:
September 2015 Benjamin was a happy, healthy, fun loving, active 8 year old boy. Benjamin was complaining that his back hurt and he found it difficult to run about. I noticed this when I took him to his first training session at Yatton Rugby club. The night he went to bed and screamed in pain for almost an hour will remain with me forever. The next day Benjamin was admitted to the Bristol Royal Children's hospital where the investigations started. I can't explain the fear I felt when I received a call from Dr Rees one Thursday evening in October telling me that Benjamin was to attend a appointment the following day on Oncology day beds. Nothing could have prepared us for a shock diagnosis of Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH). A rare blood disease we had never heard of and knew nothing about.

Benjamin has undergone 4 surgeries under general anaesthetic, 23 doses of Vinblastin chemotherapy, 23 prednisolone steroid treatments and 25 blood tests. Every weekend he has to take a short course of antibiotics and has spent 7 nights in Bristol Royal Children's Hospital. He has endured 6 full body MRI scans, which take 2 hours each, and 36 individual xrays. Our healthy little boy was very ill. Nothing prepares you when vacuuming the lounge floor you find clumps of your son's hair as the chemotherapy begins to takes effect.

Oncology day beds is a ward that looks after many children fighting cancer, tumours, rare blood disease and those children awaiting bone marrow transplants.