Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

John Webb, one of our colleagues, and his wife Steph have an 18 month old daughter Maddison, and she has just been diagnosed with childhood cancer. It has affected us all and we wanted to do something to help. Maddison has Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia, and is being treated at Great Ormond Street.

Registered charity, Be Child Cancer Aware and the Maria Watt Foundation have sponsored the Beads of Courage programme in the UK, and Maddison is enrolled and receiving her beads for each treatment she has.

The Beads of Courage programme is designed to provide an additional treatment and offers support for children and teenagers undergoing serious illness and treatments. The initial reaction to the Beads is “aren’t they pretty” but it is not until you see it in action and talk to children and care-givers that you can see the impact that they have.

Major benefits of the programme are that it helps to decrease illness-related distress, increases the use of positive coping strategies, helps children find meaning in illness and restores a sense of self in children coping with serious illness.

The programme also provides something tangible that a child can use to tell family and care-givers about their experience during treatment.  We are raising money for Be Child Cancer Aware through the Maria Watt Foundation for this wonderful Beads of Courage program, and we are doing it all in Maddison's honour.

If we raise enough money, then Maddison will be the official sponsor of her local hospital (Basildon) to receive this amazing programme. We will also carry some special courage beads which will be forever known as "Maddison's Miles" beads, and will be given out to children in hospitals with cancer who are on the beads of courage program!  

Please watch the short video, below to learn more, and please dig deep! Many thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hzs-wSO1Gw8