So here we go again! With the expert expedition planning and preparation of my good friend Dan Manterfield, I'm planning something really silly again that will be very difficult, will make me utter expletives under (and probably) over my breath, cause me large amounts of pain and I probably will only enjoy once it's all finished. Sadly, it'll take a while to finish.

What am I doing, you ask? Well, it's simple. Not easy, but simple: along with Thomas Kew, a good friend of mine, I'm going to run 16 miles from the source of the river Thames just outside of Cirencester, to a point at which we will have kayaks at the ready. That's the easy part. Then we're going to kayak those kayaks down the entire length of the non-tidal Thames. It's pretty silly, covers 136 miles in total and 43 locks. All in under 3 days. Given that it will probably require more than 15 hours of kayaking each day, we haven't planned for the luxury of much sleep. So, that's it.

Why am I doing it, you ask? Well, I think you know already, as lots of information is on Annabelle's main site (www.justgiving.com/AnnabellesDream) and I havent been shy about advertising it, but it's to help raise £55,000 for an operation that will change Annabelle's life forever and will mean that she will be able to walk unassisted for the first time in her life and forever. It's pretty big stuff. More information is below, for those who haven't seen the main JustGiving site and who don't know us.

Thank you so much for coming here and please do help Annabelle!

Tim

xxx

Thank you for visiting Annabelle's Just Giving page. You can help her dream come true by donating as much or as little as you can afford!

Annabelle is 3 years old and was born 12 weeks' prematurely. Soon after, she was diagnosed with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy as a result of her premature birth. The biggest symptom in Annabelle is that she has a really intense tightness in the muscles in her legs (just like heavy duty elastic bands). This means that she is unable to walk unaided and suffers from regular pain as a result of her tight muscles. 

She is a really bright, bubbly, loving, cuddly little girl and so very brave. She only ever gets grumbly after long, intensive periods of physio.

There is an operation that would help Annabelle walk, called selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR). This is a 5 hour neuro-surgical operation that would directly target and eliminate the nerve rootlets in Annabelle's spinal cord that cause the spasticity in her legs. The process would leave only the properly-firing nerve rootlets intact and would permanently eliminate the spasticity in her muscles.

The best place in the world for SDR is the St Louis Children's Hospital, Missouri in America. There, Dr Park has performed over 2,500 operations and his success rate is 100%. That's 100%. Amazingly, every single SDR operation he has ever performed has succeeded in improving the child's life forever. This is what we, and Annabelle, want so badly.

The price of the SDR operation is very high. Once the operation itself, aftercare, travel and accommodation costs are taken into account, we would need to have raised £55,000. This is why we really need your help!

The people at the Tree of Hope Children's Charity have so very kindly allowed us to fundraise under their banner. The Tree of Hope help fund specialist medical surgery, treatment and therapy to children in order to free them from suffering and to give them a better quality of life in their young lives. They have helped many other children raise money for SDR. With their support and your help and donations, Annabelle's dream can come true too.

 

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 Tree of Hope and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for The Tree of Hope and for Annabelle.

So please dig deep and donate now!

Thank you.

xxx