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Jo and I have been best friends for half our lives now and so I was not shocked, when I asked her to run with me for Ronald McDonald House, that she accepted to support me as always and run alongside me to raise money for such a great place :). Jo used to come each week whilst my husband and I were living there, to visit us and her godson and so understands the importance that the Manchester House holds to our family.

3 Years ago I was pregnant with twin boys when I went into labour at 23 weeks. The boys were born and placed immediately into Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU) where they received amazing care but sadly our youngest boy, Jack Luke, died after 4 days of fighting a massive infection. My husband and I were with him when he passed away and it was the hardest thing we have ever had to deal with. It had been hard enough to leave our baby boys in someone else's care but once Jack had died we were beyond scared to leave Luke Jack as he continued to fight each day for his life.

And that's where Ronald McDonald House came to our rescue and support. They provided us with a room so that we could stay close to our surviving boy, so that if we were taking a rest and he took a turn for the worst we could be with him in a matter of minutes. They provided us with a place to relax and rest so that we could preserve our strength to support our boys. They provided us with a team of people that genuinely cared and spent time with us, helping us through each day. Giving us hugs when the days had been bad and smiles and cheers when we were having good days. A place to share with other parents that were sat each day and night with their sick children, praying that the good days outnumbered the bad days and sharing when they had their good days which gave us confidence that we also would have our good days.

Ronald McDonald House is more than a building housing 60 rooms for families to stay close to their sick children. It is a sanctuary for families that are scared, lost, and going through roller coaster journeys of treatment, medication and tests with their children. It is a place to lay your head when you are so weary you think you can't go on, but you know you must because your child is putting up the greatest fight of their lives. Ronald McDonald House has a team of people who care for everyone that walks through their doors and they spend each day going above and beyond to help and comfort and make sure the families staying with them don't have to worry about being too far away from their children at such a harrowing time.

I am not sure what we would have done without Ronald McDonald House 3 years ago, probably slept in the car. But instead we had a place to call home, to make new friends who understood the roller coaster we were on. A place to mourn our boy Jack, whilst staying strong for Luke. A place that will always be part of our hearts for what they did for us. And for that reason we try to keep sponsoring the room we lived in so that other families will always have a place to stay close to their children, to take the worry of having to leave them away.

The house itself takes over £500,000 to run each year but in 2015 it helped a massive 970 families stay together. And that is why Jo and I are going to try and run our first ever 10K!!! We are going to step well out of our comfort zones to help families stay together at Ronald McDonald House Manchester.

Thank you for reading this and please give as much as you can, any donation is so gratefully received and will spur us on to get round. Thank you in advance :) xx

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