THANK YOU so much for supporting me to raise funds for my granddaughter, Isabella's, post operative care, by running the London Marathon. Isabella is nearly 4 and has cerebral palsy due to premature birth. It affects her legs and so she struggles to walk independently. She is very sociable and loves music and, with support, dancing. It's heart-breaking to see her look longingly at other carefree children happily running about and dancing. We in her family are thrilled that later this year she's going to have a transformative operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital which aims to help her to walk, even dance! It's called Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) surgery. It will be truly life changing. To gain long lasting benefit she'll need intensive physiotherapy before and for at least two years after the surgery. The NHS can provide for the first few weeks but the reality is it's not nearly enough to get her walking well or, importantly, to maintain her progress. So I'm raising money to support her long post operative path through physio, with both the specialist expertise and essential equipment she'll need. Isabella has plenty of cheerful determination and all of us in the family very very much hope that one day, through the hard work of physio she will actually be able to dance on her own. 

All the money I raise through the marathon will go directly to support Isabella. The fund is managed by the registered charity Just4children and you can find more information about this via the link on the righthand side of this page. 

I'm not aiming to beat any records in the marathon (pretty unlikely anyway!) just to finally cross the finish line and know I've done something to help Isabella to be more mobile, live a more fulfilled life, and especially to dance on her own. Just to add that if anything unforeseen happens (and I hope not after all that training in the cold!) to prevent me running in this marathon, I am planning a similar event later in the year and would use that instead. 

Thank you again for whatever amount you give. I very greatly appreciate your generosity. It means so much to me, Isabella's family and of course to Isabella herself. It will make a simply enormous difference to her whole future.                                                                        Sue