Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I am running 5km for the RBC kids race because:

When my niece Zainab Malik Lafta was 2 months old she was in critical condition in hospital in Dubai. The Doctors had assessed her situation and concluded that there wasn't more they could do for her, she was worsening and her immunity was not strengthening. This came about as a result of not catching the problem early and diagnosing it as skin infection, when it was rather a more serious and critical case. The last solution was to call up hospitals in England; the one hospital that was strongly recommended was Great Ormond Street Hospital. We took our chances, as more risk was faced keeping her in Dubai, and decided to take her over to London. There was no certainty or guarantee that this was going to be a success, however there was hope and that was a bit of hope in that the hospital has had incredible results and experience in these situations.

The situation was that in order to survive, she needed a new bone marrow, so that she may rebuild her immunity, however even then there was no certainty, just a shot in the dark. Now, finding a bone marrow is quite a difficult thing, as it requires 10/10 of matches which comes about very rarely. Whilst in the search for a bone marrow, the result of the low immunity meant no defence against new illnesses that Zainab had to face including MRSA and meningitis. After going through all family members direct and indirect the hospital had to go through 12 million donors around the world before one was found in Spain, there was hope. After going through a very difficult operation it had to get worse before it would get better. We prayed for our baby Zainab to be saved, and she was and it is the Great Ormond Street Hospital that came through for us in the end, a tragic first year to an innocent baby’s life who has now blossomed into a young healthy normal girl.

For those of you who are close to my family and I, you will know the pain that we have gone through, and the months that we lived in the hospital just praying for progress whilst having to watch her suffer. As a token of appreciation towards the GOSH (Great Ormond Street Hospital) I have set about trying to raise as much possible for this cause as we hope that the hospital will eventually find cures and quicker ways of dealing with this before birth and immediately after, so that no family has to see their child go through the incredible amount of pain that we witnessed. So please donate generously.

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 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 charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.