Hi!

I am running the Royal Parks Half Marathon on October 9, 2011 for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity.  Most of you know why I am doing it but here is our story:

Our son Stanley was born in January with a rare and serious heart defect.  Two days after he was born he was transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital where he underwent a 6 hour surgery.  The surgery at the time was successful and we were able to get Stan home.  Unfortunately over the next few months Stan started to suffer breathing problems and one night became very ill.  He was transferred back to GOSH in May and underwent his second open heart surgery to alleviate the breathing problems. The surgery was a success and after 3 weeks in intensive care Stan is currently at home and doing very well. 

While a very scary time for us and our families we knew we were in the best place possible.  On a daily basis the the nurses, doctors and surgeons do amazing life saving work.  We have experienced it twice and as Stan will need further surgeries in the future we will experience it again.  Overall Stan has spent a total of 6 weeks in the cardiac intensive care unit and on the cardiac ward and during all that time Deb and I have been put into the family accomodation which is generously supplied by the GOSH charity.  This takes all the pressure off of where to stay and allowed us to be within a couple minutes of Stan.

Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity needs to raise over £50 million each year to make sure the hospital remains the world-class pioneering institution it is today. Support from fundraising events like this helps them to buy vital equipment, fund pioneering research and most importantly rebuild and refurbish some of their hospital site. This redevelopment will allow them to replace inconvenient, cramped outdated wards with new facilities where parents can sleep alongside their child and will mean that children have more space in which to get well.

It truly is an amazing and inspiring place so please give as generously as you can so that their life saving work can continue and other families can have the same support and opportunity that we had. 

Thank you for your help,

Brad, Deb and Stan

p.s. If you are a UK taxpayer don't forget to tick the gift aid box so that even more money goes to Great Ormond Street!