Catherine Bell
Catherine & Jo's ultimate challenge - VLM 2018!
Fundraising for Make-A-Wish Foundation UK
Story
October 2017 - Well what can we say - how on earth did we manage to get ourselves signed up for a marathon, and not just any marathon, the Virgin London Marathon!
Actually I blame Jo! Back in 2016, Jo watched the marathon on TV and decided that it would be a great thing to do, inspired by the stories and people running it that year - and signed up there and then for a charity place running for Make A Wish (more about that later). Fast forward to the end of last year and her training hadn't gone to plan, and life just got in the way so she decided to defer it for 12 months and run it in 2018.
In steps big sister (aka me!) - I didn't want her to have another wobble and not achieve her goal, so I decided that I would join her, also signing up for a charity place, so that we could be in it together (and part of me thought there is no way my little sister is going one better than me - if she can run a marathon, so can I!)
Joking aside, this is a huge challenge for us both - we did a half marathon last year, which was tough. We are under no illusion that the training, during the long cold, wet winter, is going to be hard on both of us and our families - so our reason why is what will get us through...
My son Jack has Dravet Syndrome, a severe epilepsy life-limiting condition which affects all aspects of his, and our daily lives. He has profound and multiple learning difficulties and is autistic. He can't talk and needs 24 hour care so life can be quite tough.
In 2014, Make A Wish granted my son Jack a magical wish to swim with dolphins in Florida. I can't tell you what that holiday meant to us - Jack experienced things we couldn't imagine and he had a huge smile on his face the whole week, It has given us memories to last a lifetime and we wanted to raise money so that other children like Jack could benefit from experiences like he had.
Thank you for donating and I can promise you that you will be changing people's lives
Catherine & Joanna x
Actually I blame Jo! Back in 2016, Jo watched the marathon on TV and decided that it would be a great thing to do, inspired by the stories and people running it that year - and signed up there and then for a charity place running for Make A Wish (more about that later). Fast forward to the end of last year and her training hadn't gone to plan, and life just got in the way so she decided to defer it for 12 months and run it in 2018.
In steps big sister (aka me!) - I didn't want her to have another wobble and not achieve her goal, so I decided that I would join her, also signing up for a charity place, so that we could be in it together (and part of me thought there is no way my little sister is going one better than me - if she can run a marathon, so can I!)
Joking aside, this is a huge challenge for us both - we did a half marathon last year, which was tough. We are under no illusion that the training, during the long cold, wet winter, is going to be hard on both of us and our families - so our reason why is what will get us through...
My son Jack has Dravet Syndrome, a severe epilepsy life-limiting condition which affects all aspects of his, and our daily lives. He has profound and multiple learning difficulties and is autistic. He can't talk and needs 24 hour care so life can be quite tough.
In 2014, Make A Wish granted my son Jack a magical wish to swim with dolphins in Florida. I can't tell you what that holiday meant to us - Jack experienced things we couldn't imagine and he had a huge smile on his face the whole week, It has given us memories to last a lifetime and we wanted to raise money so that other children like Jack could benefit from experiences like he had.
Thank you for donating and I can promise you that you will be changing people's lives
Catherine & Joanna x
