On Friday 3rd March 2023, Runners from around the world unite to run the annual 4x4x48 Challenge.

Specifically for us, that will be Alex Cookson, Jamie Hawthorne, Anthony Edwards, & David Pountney.

What is the 4x4x48 Challenge?

In simple terms, it's running 4 miles, every 4 hours, for 48 hours. This is something not to be taken lightly as it is extremely mentally, and physically daunting. Many fail, but we will not.

Understandable, with such a challenge we felt we should do it to raise some money for a worthwhile cause, That being Birmingham Children’s Hospital.

We all have children, we all know how precious they are, and we would all move soil and stone to ensure their safety so they can receive the very best treatment should they ever need it.

Sadly, In April 2022 Alex began to see the wonders that Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH) do on a daily occasion.

They treat around 90,000 children a year, many of which who come from all over the country for the specialist care they can offer.

Alex's new-born daughter, just 36 hours old stopped breathing shortly after being discharged from their local hospital forcing Alex himself to begin giving lifesaving CPR to tiny Evie. Evie was rushed back to her local hospital before BCH sent a specialist Critical Care Ambulance to collect Evie and bring her to Birmingham Children’s Intensive Care Unit.

Alex & Jasmine were told to expect the worst, as by the following morning Evie was placed onto a ventilator and deteriorating rapidly. Fortunately thanks to the specialist care BCH offered Evie spent 3 weeks in intensive care, undergoing multiple life saving operations, multiple lifesaving blood transfusions and platelet transfusions and multiple intensive treatments of varying nature. All very specialist which could only be performed in Intensive Care or the Operating Theatre.

Evie spent the first 6 months of her life in Birmingham Children’s Hospital, mainly spread between Intensive Care & High Dependency.

Here is what Alex had to say:

It is every parents worst nightmare, you cant even begin to explain the strength you are forced to find to be there for your little girl. You cant hold her, all you can do is sit there at the bedside and hold her hand or stroke her face while talking to her. It truly is a long day. Sitting there, wondering if every time the machine beeps will be its last, wondering if you will ever be able to hold her, and wondering why this has happened and what you can do to fix it. You are completely helpless sat there watching everything that happens around you, when she was in surgery every second felt like an hour.

People are telling you she is likely not going to make it she is that poorly but you can see hourly how fast things are changing and how hard people are working all trying to make her better. During our first 8 weeks in hospital, we couldn't see our other daughter as our entire lives had stopped. She was living with her nan and grandad so we could both be present at the hospital at all times as there was so much information to take in and how often things changed.

Every nurse we dealt with would make the effort to ask if we had eaten or drank that day, One big memory I have is waking up. Easter Morning at the side of the bed and the nurses had changed her into an Easter bunny outfit and taken her footprint to make an Easter card for us. You are completely helpless but somehow the nurses make everything seem like it is going to be ok.

Children come from all over the country to receive the specialist care. Most children will often arrive at the hospital before their parents. Scared, Alone, Poorly. The sounds you hear in those walls will never ever be something I will forget. The screams of children crying from their illnesses, both visible and invisible to the cries of parents saying their final goodbyes.

The staff at BCH think about everything, they provided us accommodation, provided us food and drinks until we could find a local shop to get supplies, provided us with washing facilities, even an area where we could try and take a breather if ever we needed. They supported us with specialist training in any medical procedure we may need to do at home. In Evie's case, that is a lot of training to support her properly at HOME. Somewhere we wouldn't be without BCH. More importantly though, For those children who are poorly but able to sit up in bed, they can provide bedside toys, games, mobile games consoles, VR headsets, amd specialist equipment to make the difficult times, easier for those children for the things they are too young, and shouldn't need to understand.

Please help us, help them by donating.

Thank you.

At Birmingham Childrens Hospital Charity, we believe theres always more we can do for our sick kids and thats why we will always strive to do more for our patients and families. Its our mission to raise the vital funds needed to make a real difference to all who use our hospital.Your support empowers us to take innovative approaches to treating some of the sickest children in the UK. Your fundraising enables us to make our hospital feel just like home. Your donations are helping us to find new ways to treat and cure childhood diseases.