My daughter Molly is about to turn 3. She is feisty, funny & an absolute firecracker. She is little (after being born 10 weeks early) but MIGHTY and she also nearly died when she was one a half months old (still not even at her official due date).

I am running this half marathon to raise funds for the Evelina London Children’s Hospital who saved her life and continue to support us now.

Here is Molly's story:

In 2021 95 children across the UK were so ill they had to have ECMO treatment.

Molly was one of them.

What is ECMO I hear you ask. If you google it this comes up: 'In extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), blood is pumped outside of your body to a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide and sends oxygen-filled blood back to tissues in the body.'

It is essentailly a lung bypass. When Molly was just 8 weeks old she contracted Human metapneumovirus. Another alien word! It is a severe virus that affects the lungs. You could summarise this as RSV / bronchiolitis which perhaps you have heard of. Further to this she battled other infections as her body tried to fight things off.

Molly was born 10 weeks early so this virus hit her hard, she contracted it when technically she shouldn't even have been out in the world. The virus was so vicious that her lungs needed a break and a machine intervened to act as her lungs. This is what is known as ECMO.

If it wasnt for this machine and the amazing team at Evelina Molly would not be here today. What Evelina did for Molly and our family was nothing short of a miracle. The staff in PICU are some of the top in the country and supported us in more ways than I can count. They saw me through the darkest hours and helped keep me and my family together.

I can't do what they can, but I can run (or at least I could a good few years ago, 2 children later its hard to get the same level of training in!). I want to help support the hospital that were there for us. A very small way of me thanking them.

Anything you donate means the world to me as I know first hand how much this hospital helps families of very sick children.

Thank you.