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I am running the Great North Run on 11th September 2016 as well as the Yorkshire 3 10ks taking place; Hull on the 19th June, Leeds on the 10th July and York on the 7th August!!

I am running to raise money for The Sick Children's Trust to help provide accommodation to families whose children are ill in hospital.

The Sick Children's trust receives no government funding and relies entire on voluntary donations and support from members of the public. The reason I am fundraising for them is because of the help they gave to Nick and I back in 2009 when our daughter, Charlotte was born prematurely with a condition called Gastroschisis, where she had a hole in her abdominal wall and her intestines were growing outside her body.

Charlotte was born at Darlington Memorial Hospital by emergency caesarean at 34 weeks after she became distressed following complications with her bowels. She was rushed to the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle for life saving surgery. She would remain in intensive care, and the care of the hospital for a further 6 weeks.

When I was finally discharged from Darlington hospital 24 hours after her birth I couldn't wait to get to up Newcastle to see her. The drive up there was awful in terms of how long it took, the traffic we encountered and it dawned on me that I was going to have to do this journey every day, twice a day and I just broke down. How could I leave my daughter at hospital, fighting for her life every day? How could I be expected to leave her alone, all alone and scared without me there to tell her it was going to be ok? By the time Nick and I got to the hospital the tears were still going strong and they just didn't stop. Upon seeing the hospital my first thought was OMG this place is huge and it further added to me worrying about her being here alone.

I had no doubt she would be cared for by the medical team, but every little girl needs her mummy and daddy. We eventually parked the car (well dumped it!) and ran to intensive care to see Charlotte. She was sleeping, covered in tubes and so so very tiny. This was the first time I’d been able to see her since she was born. I couldn't believe how small she was. Running into the hospital I was so excited to see her that I had managed to temporarily stop crying but seeing this little girl, my daughter, well you can imagine how I felt and the tears started again! How could I leave her? How was I going to get to the hospital to see her? I wasn't able to drive as I had just has a caesarean which voided my ability to drive, therefore I would have to reply on Nick and family to make to 200 mile round trip each day. At this point a doctor came over to talk to us about Charlotte. I listened intently not wanting to stop looking at this amazing little girl that was mine. He told us how the surgery had gone and what her care plan was going to be as they had encountered further complications during surgery which had resulted in charlotte having a stoma.

We were informed that she would be in hospital anyway from 6 to 18 weeks depending on how she responded to treatment, how she fed and how she was growing. Once again I burst into tears. The worst end of the scale was 18 weeks, that’s 4 ½ months or 126 days. That's 126 we would have to travel backwards and forwards all those miles would total over 30,000!!

The consultant, Mr De-la-Hunt continued to talk and then said he'd received a call from Gail at Crawford house letting me know that our room was ready. Our room?? We hadn't booked anything my puzzled face said it all and Mr De-La-Hunt continued to explain all about the Home from Home scheme. He explained that the scheme was implement so that families of critically ill children were able to stay within the grounds of the hospital and that this was provided free of charge to families. Hearing this was like all my Christmas’s’ coming at once. Having this accommodation on enabled Nick and I to be able to stay with Charlotte for as long as we needed she would stay in hospital while our room was only a stone’s throw away the home from home house provided spacious ensuite room with a huge shared kitchen and dining area as well as a spacious lounge, all the comforts of home whilst being able to be close to our daughter. It was just amazing. There were many nights I couldn't sleep so I simply went and sat by charlottes bed holding her hand, stroking her head and simply just spending time with her. This was the time we all needed together the most.

If it wasn't for this charity here we would've had to commute daily at huge cost to us which we would have done but would've been difficult both emotionally and physically as well as financially. Having a room took away so much worry, stress and heartache that we were able to focus on giving Charlotte all the help and support she needed.

Until the charity offered this help I had no idea they existed yet this didn’t matter to them. The housed Nick and I for over 2 months at no cost to us whatsoever. There are many charities out there that some people don't even know they exist until you need their help it is for this reason why I am doing the Yorkshire 3 10ks and the Great North Run. I am not a natural runner, in fact I'm not a particularly good or fast runner so this is massively out of my comfort zone! But to raise money I believe you have to do something extraordinary, and that's what the Sick Children's Trust do every day to 1000's of families.

To house a family, it costs for charity and average of £35 per family per night which comes entirely from voluntary donations and fundraising. I hope to raise as much as possible to the charity can continue their amazing and selfless support to families with children who are critically ill.

Please dig deep and donate as much as you can because every little will make a massive difference to the charity.