Together with my wonderful colleagues at Ecological Survey and Assessment (ECOSA), we will be walking the length of the Itchen Navigation to help raise money for Empowering Elodie.

Since ECOSA are an ecological consultancy, working with plants and animals, it only felt appropriate for us all to complete the walk in animal fancy dress.

We have chosen the Itchen Navigation because the length of it represents. Some otter are known to use 20 kilometres or more of river habitat so it seemed like a fitting distance to cover for us ecologists.

It’s going to be a walk like no otter(!).

Any donation big or small would be gratefully received. Thanks so much!

Lucy (Elodie’s Mum) and Team ECOSA

About Empowering Elodie

Empowering Elodie is a campaign in aid of the charity Just4Children set up to help my colleague's eldest daughter Elodie.

Elodie is a beautiful, loving and cheeky four-year-old girl who just happens to be living with a Syndrome Without A Name (SWAN), which means she has a genetic condition so rare that it is often impossible to diagnose.

Being a SWAN child comes with a lot of challenges. Elodie was born with brain abnormalities and has profound neurodevelopmental, physical and communication disabilities and complex medical needs including epilepsy, which impacts upon every aspect of her life.

Elodie requires many vital therapies and specialist equipment to help her reach her full potential and give her a much better quality of life. These include sensory therapy, speech and language therapy, hydrotherapy, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.

Whilst Elodie's parents have some support from the NHS, a lot of the consistent ongoing therapies and the majority of equipment have to be funded privately by them.

Elodie loves life. She has a massive personality, great sense of humour and produces the most enormous belly laughs. We want her to be able to live life to the fullest, but sadly the cost of the therapies and equipment isn’t sustainable and we need support through fundraising to help her thrive and enjoy life as much as possible.

If you would like to follow Elodie’s journey, we have set up a Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/empoweringelodie

Thanks for reading 😊