In January 2009 I suffered the most life changing event in my life to date. It was a Sunday and just like any 13 year old I was preparing to go back to school from the Christmas holidays. It was later that evening that I collapsed and everything changed in my life. 

I was rushed to a local hospital by my parents and then almost immediately transferred to Great Ormond Street Hospital where I was diagnosed with a brain haemorrhage and a resulting stroke which paralysed me on the left side of my body. I needed immediate care in order to relieve pain and to stop my symptoms worsening.

The staff and nurses at Great Ormond Street Hospital not only helped save my life but also made my recovery far quicker than it would have been without their support and expertise. The physical wellbeing I have now, able  to have nearly full use of both my arm and leg owes a lot to the care that I received during my time as a patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

It has since been an ambition of mine, even as a patient, to give back one day to the organisation that has given so much to me. Now fit and healthy 2019 marks ten years since I was a patient at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Although not a runner, completing the London marathon will not only be a great personal achievement but the perfect opportunity for me to mark 10 years by doing my bit for a charity that has done so much for myself and continues to do so much for children from across the UK. 

The donations that Great Ormond Street Hospital receive help the charity in many ways. Much of the current buildings used for inpatients date back to the 1930s, making them increasingly unsuitable for the treatment of seriously ill children. New facilities are being built to help give a better, more flexible, convenient and comfortable service for patients and their families. Enable Gosh to treat more children. And, give researchers and clinical staff the resources they need to develop new treatments.

As well as this, paediatric research is incredibly underfunded in comparison to the rest of medical research. To counteract this; GOSH plans to over the next five years invest £50 million into unlocking the big breakthroughs of the future for rare and complex childhood conditions.