Back in November 2009 I met Hazel, living in the same village and both heavily pregnant with our first babies. Born just 3 days before Alice, were Joe and Peggy, Hazel and James' beautiful twins. Needless to say the 3 children became great buddies from Day 1, and have remained close to this day.

Three years later, on November 23rd arrived Tommy, the third addition to the Swankie family. A mop of dark hair and the cutest face, he was an angel. He was the perfect baby. The most beautiful boy.

The Swankies moved to Holland in November 2013, we were all very sad to see them go, but made promises to keep in touch  - we did and we made plans to go skiing with them in March last year. We had a great week and the kids absolutely loved spending time altogether again. At the end of the holiday, we bid a sad farewell at the chalet as we headed off back to the UK and Holland. Little did we know that this would have been our last goodbye to Tommy. He fell very poorly just a couple of months later. 

Tommy was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia, a very rare and aggressive form of the disease. He started an intense course of chemotherapy, but it soon became apparent that his little body was not responding well to it. Tommy died a couple of weeks later, aged just 18 months.

It is difficult for any of us to comprehend what Hazel and James, Joe and Peggy have been through over the past 9 months and continue to go through. It is Hazel's wish that Tommy is remembered by all that knew him. I want to do this challenge in memory of Tommy. 

Team Tommy will be walking 100km over approximately 30 hours over the rolling hills and the high ridges of the scenic South Downs. We have started the training walks and we are all raring to go! If you can, please donate to my page. Thank you. X

We can do this!