I'm sure you all know our story. Five years ago, we were in Great Ormond Street Hospital with our youngest daughter, Milly, who has Crouzon's syndrome. Since birth, she's spent great chunks of her life there and endured many operations. After 3 months in the city, we left looking forward to some well deserved normality. Little did we know that as one chapter closed, another one, a whole lot bigger, was about to open.
No one imagines their child will be diagnosed with cancer - they think it's something that only happens to other people. After all we'd been through with Milly, we were dumbfounded to be given such news.
People often ask how we cope. Well, we think we muddle along rather than cope; we have a slightly warped sense of humour and spend a lot of time laughing, possibly at things we shouldn't laugh at. But also, we don't actually know anything else. Milly will be 14 this year and from the second she was born, our days have been punctuated with hospital appointments, blood tests and childcare arrangements for one child or the other.
Alice is delighted, in her own words, to be around to see her charity receive offical registration. The one thing that has kept us going, has been the time when we can cut off from the world and just enjoy being a family together. When a child is diagnosed with cancer, it effects the whole family and at at time when a break can mean the most, few have the ability to afford one.
In taking on this challenge, we hope to be able to raise enough money to buy a holiday caravan for our charity, so they'll always be a place for famliies to escape to when they need it most. Any residual funds may be put towards general charity running costs.