Dear friend,

Running the London Marathon, will be a huge challenge for me after having been diagnosed with leukaemia 1 year ago.

But I'm committed to help as many families as I can and I have seen the amazing work of the Family Holiday Association in making beautiful moments happen. Beautiful moments that will become the most precious memories of all. 

Now, I'm only asking you to sit back and give me 5 minutes of your time. I'll take you way back to those sweet childhood memories of a holiday with your parents or your loved ones... To that warm, cosy, exciting place when everything was just about the journey you were all going to embark on in the morning and the feverish anticipation of the next few days spent on a sunny, sandy beach or in the cool shade of an imposing mountain. Holidays with your family were everything in those days and you were looking forward to those special moments year after year.

More importantly, the moment when your memories of those precious times are being awakened again, you are most likely to be flooded with those warm, those happy feelings that you used to experience whenever you were away with your loved ones.

Now just imagine that you had nothing, absolutely nothing to go back to when I'm telling you this little story.

No memories, no warm feelings, no experience of sunny, beautiful days spent together. Because life was tough, really tough, because those memories could never be made.

The Family Holiday Association helps families struggling in really tough situations to get a much-needed break or day out. Families like Sophie's...Sophie, aged 12, is the main carer for her mum Ruth, who is registered disabled. Sophie is a resilient person, but being a young carer is putting enormous strain on her own mental and physical health.The Family Holiday Association helped Sophie and Ruth to visit the seaside, and Sophie was able to run around and play, and feel like a child again. This brief respite helped them create long-lasting happy memories to draw on when times get tough.

Just imagine...a 12 year old child as the main carer. A child whom without this wonderful charity, without their help, without YOUR help, would have never had a sweet, warm holiday memory with her mum.

Now, I grew up in deepest Communism in Eastern Europe. Things were tough. And life wasn't easy. But there was always one glimmer of happiness, one ray of sunshine and that was when my mum and dad announced that we were going away on a holiday. Sometimes just a few days high up in the Transylvanian mountains. Other times a long, long journey to the sandy beaches of the Black Sea. Despite the challenges of the political regime and the huge implications - these memories of the holidays with my parents have remained the beaming sunshine of my childhood and probably have ended up inspiring my deepest love and passion for our wonderful travel industry I'm working in today. 

THANK YOU and please give generously if you can.

Lucia xxx