We are a group of three sisters and their friends who are undertaking the Caledonian Challenge on June 12th (see end for update!).  This is a 54 mile walk to be completed in 24 hours near Fort William in Scotland and we are walking to raise money for the Evelina Childrens Hospital in London.  We have called ourselves the Finn Fighters as we are walking in the name of my little boy Finn.

For someone who is only  5 months old, Finn has had a pretty eventful life so far!  He was born on 4th November completely healthy and we had a fantastic first week at home with him.  When he began to go off his food and was very sleepy, I just knew something was not quite right with him. We were admitted to our local hospital in Maidstone for observation but the following day his condition suddenly deteriorated and luckily the doctor on duty telephoned the Evelina hospital for advice. The paediatric intensive care unit decided to send a retrieval team to come and pick him up.  This team comprises a doctor and a nurse who come from the paediadric intensive care unit by ambulance with all their own equipment.  Luckily, they arrived in 45 minutes as Finn suddenly "crashed".  The team managed to insert a breathing tube and stabilise him sufficiently to transport him back to the Evenlina.  The doctor on the team, Trisha,  has told me since that he very very nearly didn't make it.

We arrived at the Evelina Childrens Hospital which is part of  Guys and St Thomas's Foundation Trust in London in the evening of Saturday 15th November.  We were immediately struck by how modern and clean the hospital was and we knew that if he was going to have any chance of survival, this was the best possible place for him.  There are 20 intensive care beds each with its own complex equipment.  The children benefit from one to one nursing and a whole team of specialists are constantly on hand.    They found out that the problem was his heart; it was hugely enlarged and was only working at 10%  normal function .  The prognosis was not good and all his other organs were showing huge signs of stress - basically his tiny little body was shutting down.  The next week was horrendous as despite the huge cocktail of drugs and amazing care he was receiving - he just wasn't getting better and if anything his condition deteriorated. We were told there was nothing else that could be done. He had caught a virus and as he was so young and had so little immunity, the virus attacked his heart muscle  But, the doctors persevered and tweaked his drugs and even tried a very new drug in the desperate attempt to save him and the nurses continued  their amazing care for him 24 hours a day - they looked after him so diligently, he could have been their own child.  Jake and I stayed by his bedside, catching a few hours sleep in a room we were kindly allocated on the floor below - again, a great facility.  Amazingly, despite all the odds, Finn suddenly began to get better and after 8 days on a ventilator, it was removed and he started breathing on his own - a huge step for him and that was the start of his recovery.  He spent another week in intensive care and a further week on the ward and we were able to bring Finn home for Christmas with his family. 

Finns recovery is proceeding slowly but steadily as the virus has done significant damage to his heart but he has every chance of leading a normal life which is truly incredible considering just how sick he was.  He is still under the wonderful care of the Evelina Childrens Hospital and our visits to see the specialists are becoming more encouraging. At the darkest of moments he was nicknamed Fighting Finn and we are so proud of him - he is constantly smiling and has a lovely giggle and takes all his medicines  without complaint - such a brave little character!

We can't thank the hospital and staff enough for what they have done for Finn and our family  but what we can do is help raise funds for them  to help them continue their amazing work.  The Evelina is a hospital dedicated to children with an emphasis on cardiac problems.  Babies and children come from all over the country for heart surgery.  The dedication and skill of  the doctors and nurses is truly inspirational and very humbling.  Whilst we were there it was clear the intensive care unit and retrieval service was always operating at full capacity.  We never stop thinking how lucky it was that the facilities were available when Finn needed it.

Thank you very much for reading Finn's story and we would be so grateful if you feel able to help this amazing hospital.

*** It is now the 15 th June and we have completed the walk!!!!  We have been completely overwhelmed by the generosity and lovely messages we have received and cannot thank everyone enough for their kind donations.  It is truly amazing!  The walk was much harder than we thought but whilst the legs were aching, feet hurting and midges biting we thought about all the wonderful support and of course all the great work that your fantastic sponsorship will do.  I am talking to the hospital at the moment and discussing what we might do with this incredible amount of money and will update when we have some further plans.    Until then, thank you so very very much - it is just brilliant!!! ***

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