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In January 2011 my son Harry was born with 'Galactosaemia' this is an illness which affects 1 in every 50,000 people so is particularly rare. In the first two weeks of his life he became ill with no explanation despite feeding and appearing well, after a serious sequence of events we ended up in the Royal Victoria Infirmary at Newcastle.

As a family we were worrying about where to stay as well as the constant fear of Harry's wellbeing, but we were extremely well supported by The Sick Childrens Trust who offered us a 'Home from Home' in the form of Crawford House on the Hospital site.

Harry's diagnosis was fairly rapid thanks to the swift work of doctors at Whitehaven and Newcastle and our stay was only 5 days which is extremely minor in comparison to some of the families with poorly children. Some of these families are in such accomodation for months and months and are never charged thanks to charities such as 'The Sick Childrens Trust' which allows them to lead a normal life whilst caring for their Child.

Reading the cards of thanks whilst in the accomodation really hit home and sparked myself and my friends into a fund raising effort to support other families in the running of these fantastic facilities. In August 2011 we raised £8,000 for the charity thanks to the kind donations from many kind people.

This year i plan to complete the London to Newcastle Bike Ride calling at all 7 of the Sick Children's Trust homes across the Country, covering some 300 miles over the 5 days. The ride will be done with other participants with a particular affiliation to the Sick Children's Trust for a number of reasons.

This year we have become an ambassador family for the Sick Children's Trust and in particular Crawford House in Newcastle, where we spent the early days of Harry's life! We were fortunate enough to film a promotional DVD to support the work of the charity and feel priviledged to be part of the work of such a dedicated group of people.

All this is in aid of 'The Sick Childrens Trust' and further details of their work can be found on - http://www.sickchildrenstrust.org/

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Another experience from a friend;

"A great cause Liam, I spent 4 weeks with the Sick Childrens Trust - Crawford House at the RVI following the birth of my little girl Millie. I can’t stress how much it helped relieve the pressure of not being divided between home and RVI especially as my husband was self employed at the time (there is no help out there for people who are self employed and if you not working your not earning!) it really allowed us to be with Millie and I think that made a real difference to her survival and then recovery (she’s a little rogue now though!). They were great gave us a room so that my 3 year old (at the time) could stay with us too."

So please dig deep and donate now.

Many Thanks

Liam Nicholls