My name is Adam Partridge and I am an auctioneer - some of you might know me from the antiques & auction shows on television. I would like to share the story of Grace, a little girl from the Cheshire town of Congleton, where I have lived for 20 years.

I met Grace and her mum Claire when I visited them to value some items that they wanted to sell. The only reason they were selling items was to raise money to help take Grace on a holiday to Llandudno. I spoke with them some more and learned about their story, which instantly touched me.

Claire was told she would never had children but got pregnant during the Covid pandemic. Tragically, she suffered a miscarriage, which was heartbreaking and very hard for the whole family to deal with.

However, Claire became pregnant again and felt blessed but understandably nervous. It was far from an easy pregnancy, with many worrying trips to the hospital due to heavy bleeding and other issues including the baby not growing. Eventually Grace was born by emergency C-section but was just 4lb10oz and had health issues including struggling to breathe. Instead of being able to hold her new baby in her arms like most mothers, Grace was rushed to Intensive Care and the family were then informed that she had a hole in her heart.

Grace is such a sweet and cheerful little girl but she suffers greatly from a variety of health issues. She has dysphagia so cannot eat normal food - everything has to be pureed. She requires regular physio and hydrotherapy (she loves the water!) as she struggles with her mobility and cannot walk, sit up, stand or bear weight independently. Along with this and her dietary requirements she also has very sensitive hearing and eyesight. She has also been diagnosed with a brian impairment as her frontal lobes have not developed, which means that she doesn't receive as many signals from her brain resulting in difficulty moving, speaking and expressing herself. In short, she is severely disabled and requires a lot of specialist care.

Furthermore, Grace was very close to her grandma, who took her to Llandudno in August 2022 for a memorable trip. Tragically, her grandma passed away just a few weeks later, which was a great shock and obviously extremely sad for a family that was already going through so much.

Grace requires 24 hour attention and is lucky to have a wonderful mother who is absolutely dedicated to doing her absolute best for her. But this is of course extremely challenging and has meant that Claire, her mother, has had to devote her entire life to caring for her.

I offered my help to Claire and her family and am honoured to say that they have taken me up on this offer to raise much needed funds. The main aim at this stage is to raise enough to be able to send Grace and her family on a much-needed Christmas holiday at their favourite place, the Merrion hotel in Llandudno, home to the happy memories of a previous holiday with her beloved grandma. The cost of this is more than you might think due to transport, mobility/access issues etc. Claire has used the very last bit of her life savings up and further funds are always needed to make life a little easier for this special family who are doing their very best against all the odds. Quite frankly, as a parent myself, I couldn't fail to be touched and inspired by how they are dealing with what they are going through.

Being an auctioneer by trade, I intend to put together and hold a fundraising auction of promises. This will enable anyone to donate in whatever way they can by offering promises if they are unable to donate cash. This could be anything from baking a cake to babysitting, gardening, ironing or vouchers from local businesses such as meals out, hair/beauty treatments - in fact the list is endless once you start thinking about it! I will ensure that everyone that donates is thanked and credited appropriately.

If you are unable to attend or donate a promise of any kind, whatever you can donate on here will be hugely appreciated.

Thank you for reading this and hopefully you can help bring a smile to Grace's face as she truly deserves it.

Adam Partridge