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Overthe next 6 months, Rhod Howells, Jono Willicombe and Nick Ferns are going to ‘virtually’ run/walk 870 miles each around the Welsh Costal Path, to raise money for LATCH, a charity that supports children, (and their families), who are receiving treatment for cancer at the Children’s Hospital for Wales in Cardiff.

Starting on New Year’s Day 2021, we will run/walk locally whenever we can. Adding up the miles, we all hope to virtually reach Chester by July 10^th 2021. This is a special date as it’s the 3^rd birthday of Lowri Howells (Rhod and Jono’s beautiful niece)……

Lowri’s Story……

In February 2020, at the age of just 18 Months, Lowri was diagnosed with a Wilms' tumor…. a rare kidney cancer that primarily affects children. After diagnosis, Lowri received incredible care from the NHS staff at The Children’s Hospital for Wales in Cardiff. After 5 Sessions of chemotherapy to stabilise the tumor, it was removed on March 19^th 2020. Following further chemotherapy treatments all appeared to be going well and Lowri returned to her normal vibrant self. You would never have known she’d been ill.

Then on December 16^th 2020 a routine check-up x-ray revealed that the cancer had returned, this time in her lungs. Lowri was immediately admitted again on December 20^th and chemotherapy began again on December 22^nd. Fortunately she was able to come home on Christmas Eve and really enjoyed Christmas day with her Mum and Dad.

As treatment will continue for the next 32 weeks, we can only hope that Lowri won’t suffer too many side effects. So far, there are some complications with her white blood cells and she’s started to lose her hair that she’s so proud of, but otherwise she’s feeling ok.

There’s a long road ahead and with Covid-19 everything is more difficult. Family and friends cannot get too close but we’d love to raise some money for the LATCH charity.

If you’d like to sponsor our 870-mile run/walk (2610 miles collectively!!); we’d be very grateful. We’ll be covering the miles by running and walking whenever we can and will update our progress via the ‘End-to-end Run Map’ on Facebook etc:

Thanks for reading! All donations of any size would be much appreciated.

Here’s some more detailed information on LATCH and the amazing work they do:

LATCH provide social workers who specialise in the issues facing the  families of children receiving treatment for cancer and leukaemia. The LATCH Social Work Team is there to provide practical, emotional and
financial support in a confidential environment.

LATCH also provides a range of financial Support through Grants – this can be for travel, food, even rent in some cases. When a child goes through cancer or leukaemia treatment, families often face higher heating bills for example, and many parents have to give up work to care for a sick child.

Emotional Support for Parents is offered in the form of counselling and alternative therapies. They run various support groups for the parents as well as one to one sessions. They also organise treats and get-togethers for the parents such as pamper days for the mums and golf days for the dads. Being with people in a similar situation often helps and just doing something different can act as a much needed tonic.

LATCH also offers holiday grants or the option to use their three caravans, and provides a number of excursions for children to Lego Land, Build a Bear and other venues to provide a touch of normality or a well needed escape from ongoing treatment.

The list goes on, including:

Emotional Support for Brothers and Sisters

Benefits Advice 

Advocacy

Signposting

Ward-based family Support Workers

And much more!

LATCH needs to raise on average £700,000 a year to cover the costs of supporting families. With no paid fundraisers, they rely heavily on the hard work of volunteers and remain proud to have one of the lowest management expenses for a charity in the whole of the UK. Last year alone, over £300,000 was awarded to families in the form of financial grants.

Putting it simply, LATCH makes life easier for children and their families so that they can give their all to their treatment without letting anything else get in their way. Time and time again, families stress that LATCH lifted them when they needed it the most and in many cases stopped them from buckling. It’s only thanks to individuals and organisations up and down the country that these services have helped, and continue to help, countless families across Wales when they are most in need. 

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