Welcome to our Friends United for Annie Just Giving page - a page that we have set up to raise money for LATCH to thank them for the incredible support that they have provided to Annie since she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in April 2014.

Annie is just 4 years old and until last year was a perfectly normal, happy and healthly little girl, enjoying the naivety of her early years and who would enjoy playing with her brother Dylan and sister Alis in the sea in their home village of Bracklesham Bay.  Unfortunately this was all to change.  In April 2014 Annie started to show spontaneous bruising on her lower limbs and back and within a week became increasingly tired, pale and began to complain of abdominal pain.  Although Annie seemed generally well, these were the early signs that something was wrong.  Thankfully her mother Mari (a GP) spotted pin pricked sized petechiae (tiny red blood spots) on Annie's chin and requested a blood test to confirm her suspicions.

Mari and Arthur then received the devastating news that Annie had been diagnosed with ALL.  They were absolutely shocked and heartbroken, and we as their closest friends were heartbroken for them.

Annie immediately started 10 months of intense chemotherapy and will continue to have daily oral maintenance until September 2016!

The impact on the family has been tremendous, especially with all of Mari and Arthur's wider family living elsewhere and predominantly back home in Wales and they subsequently took the decision to move back to Wales. They moved back in December 2014 to be closer to family and they made a new connection with LATCH (Welsh Children's Cancer Charity) who have been invaluable with their support.

Our goal now is to complete a number of fundraising initiatives throughout 2015, with the Back 2 The Trenches mud run on the 17th May (Carmarthen) to mark the beginning of our efforts.  Our aim will be to raise as much money as possible and we hope that our group of runners and supporters will increase so that we can stretch our fundraising target even further.  If you fancy joining us then take a look at the following link and drop us a line to get involved: http://www.back2thetrenches.co.uk/ 

We appreciate that it is not always possible to support every cause so please give if you can, but even words of encouragement will help us on our way.  And please don't be offended if you receive this message more than once - we simply want to be able to communicate our progress with photos and updates.

Thank you for your support - It means so much to us!

Mari, Kelly, Karina and Sarah

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.