I'm sure you are thinking oh no here we go again - Jo's fundraising again to compete in a London Triathlon.

I know most of you that have kindly donated in the past know the painful loss of Imogen that we experienced in 2006 (she would be 7 now) and I wanted to compete in the London Triathlon again to raise money but did not want to donate to SANDS again as I felt it needed a new and fresh approach.

With Hugo having started at The Dragon in September we met his lovely houseparents The Wilsons whose very good friends The Mycielski were touched by a similar tragedy in 2012 when they lost their son Bruno.  They have set up an amazing charity to aim to raise £600,000 for a bursary, in Bruno's name, at Ampleforth College. The funds will be kept in endowment so that each and every year they generate £30,000 to cover the cost of one student in the school for that academic year. They have requested that the students receiving Bruno's Bursary over the years be from a background most needing help and support, the most vulnerable and disadvantaged young people whose lives could change forever as a result of such a bursary at Ampleforth.  To raise funds for Bruno's Bursary a team of family and friends cycled over 650 miles from Saint Bruno's birthplace of Cologne in Germany, via Holland, Belgium and France, back to Ampleforth Abbey and College in North Yorkshire.

They have raised nearly £400,000 from cycling from Cologne to Ampleforth College of which I joined them for the last 25 miles.

I was so amazed by their vision in trying to create something positive from the loss of their son that I felt compelled to try to add to their charity in memory of Imogen too.  It truly is an amazing and lasting tribute to their son.

Please dig deep and help keep our childrens memories alive.

 

"I'll walk beside you through the passing years,

Through days of cloud and sunshine, joy and tears;

And when the great call comes, the sunset gleams,

I'll walk beside you to the land of dreams."