Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

May 15th 2016 will be a very fitting day for me to take part in the Great Bristol 10K and raise money for Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal, as it will be exactly one year from the day that my son, Ben, left Bristol Children’s Hospital after having a brain tumour removed.

Bristol is the regional centre for most specialist treatments for children in the South West and Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal supports many aspects of the work at Bristol Children's Hospital by providing cutting edge equipment and supporting the children and their families.

I would like you to support me by making any donation that you can - no matter how small. 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

As a family we have a lot to be grateful for, to both the Children's Hospital and Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal, and our experience is outlined below. 

On New Year's Day 2015 Ben had a seizure and over the next few months he was diagnosed with epilepsy and started treatment for this. Initially, the drugs that he was prescribed had little or no effect and he quickly moved from one partial seizure a week to about six each day. These seizures also became more complex as time went on. Although new medication reduced these complex partial seizures to about 2 each day, their severity increased and their nature gradually changed. These changes raised further concerns and in March, following an EEG and an MRI scan, a lesion (which was later identified as a low grade tumour) was found on Ben's brain.

We were referred to Bristol Children's Hospital and, following many more tests, we were told that he was an ideal candidate for epilepsy
surgery. This is a relatively new procedure which, simply put, is suitable for people who have epilepsy which is caused by an abnormality in a distinct area of the brain. The following website gives more information about this: 

https://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/treatment/epilepsy-surgery/children

Bristol is one of only four centres in the country which specialise in carrying out epilepsy surgery on children and their high success rate is testament to not only the amazingly talented staff, such as Mr Carter and his team, but also the state of the art equipment that they have. This includes one of the most powerful MRI scanners in Europe, which was partially funded by Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-32610658?SThisFB&fb_ref=Default

Ben had his operation in May and it was filmed by CBBC for the programme Operation Ouch. You can see it at the following link at about 21 minutes in: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Uoo4CEGSSI&feature=share

Amazingly, Ben left hospital just 3 days after the operation but there was only space for one parent to be with him overnight when he was in hospital. Wallace & Gromit's Grand Appeal provided us with a flat close to the hospital for one of us to stay in. This was a great help as it allowed my wife and I to take it in turns to stay with Ben whilst the other one recharged their batteries.

10 months down the line, Ben is now off all medication and as far as we can tell the operation was completely successful. His last seizure was just an hour before the operation.