Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Hattie, my youngest daughter, is nearly two and has Down Syndrome. On the 21st September Georgia, Hattie and I will be taking part in a sponsored walk in High Wycombe together with a number of other local families in South Bucks.

The walk is only two miles, but that is a very long way for our children with Down Syndrome, who generally only learn to walk at three, have slightly shorter limbs and suffer from reduced muscle tone - getting everybody safely round the route will be a considerable achievement!

Sparkles is a small charity run on a volunteer basis by the parents of Pre-School children with Down Syndrome. Our aim is to teach our children to speak by addressing the challenges of delayed speech and communication associated with Down Syndrome.

We have around 20 children living in South Bucks who attend a 45 minute weekly speech lesson led by a specialist speech and language at therapist. At these sessions children, parents and carers learn Makaton signing, picture matching, Jolly Phonics and other strategies which can be employed in a home setting to develop early communication skills.

These sessions provide a highly valuable pathway to speech and a network of support and friendship giving children the best chance to succeed later at school. We are raising funds to continue to support the provision of speech therapy by our provider, Little Talkers, which costs £18,000 per annum.

So please dig deep and donate now.