Story
<p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"></span><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">On August 11th 2000 - started an awfully traumatic adventure. Barely Born, the charity that I am raising money for, made it possible for him to to survive and now he lives life to the full. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Adam (Will's dad) and I <span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">were visiting the Isle of Wight when I unexpectedly went into labour, too early and too far away from home. Not a good thing to happen to an older mother ultra control freak like me. William was born too sick to be moved and with useless lungs likened to a couple of wet teabags. Teabag became a term of affection. </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">With the expertise and care from the staff and the wonderful facilities and support provided by Barely Born, William survived. I was fortunate to be able </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">to stay with him for those 10 traumatic days in intensive care and survived too. Unfortunately such a room is not available to all freaked out i don;t have time for this mums.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">is now off to secondary school and I taking time to race across the Atlantic to Rio to raise money to support stressy mums and sick babies in similar situations. Having a room to try to sleep in and a soft seat to sit on made the days more tolerable. As we were completely unprepared Barely Born provided a teddy for the top of the incubator. Apparently this was for the baby not me.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">I will start the race to Rio from Cowes Isle of Wight on 31 July 2011 and return by 10th September (I hope), not quite in time for the beginning of school but hey I am sailing not flying. This race is part of the Clipper Round The World Challenge and I am racing on Qingdao. This is one of 10 boats with about16 people on each. I stop in Rio, others go all the way around the world. I have to go back to work om 12th September.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">The living conditions will be a challenge. I will race over 5000 miles on a watch system that the Navy has used for hundreds of years, four hours on, four hours off. I will eat from unlabelled but renames tins (protection from loosing the lables due to getting wet, drink water made from sea water (apparently tastes awful) and eat potatoes washed in Milton (no cockroaches or bugs allowed on board as they will take over) . There are no showers and I will sleep on a buck where I can, depending on which way the boat is leaning.. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">Your challenge</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">So if you donate 0.1p per mile i think that this is £5.00. Anything more than 0.1p a mile is also welcome. Here is the information about the race.</p><p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><a href="http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/the-teams/qingdao/">http://www.clipperroundtheworld.com/index.php/the-teams/qingdao/</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">William <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is keen to make the Atlantic crossing himself once he is able and he also intends to raise money for Barely Born. As he is only ten and lives in Buckinghamshire this will be a while so please don't wait - donate now.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">For those concerned about childcare please don't worry. William will be with his Dad living in East Cowes Marina until he returns to school in September. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">William will also be enjoying sailing during the Summer, particularly with Medina Valley Activity Centre in Newport and of course during Cowes Week </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">where he will accompany his dad and friends in the small boat races</span></p><p>Please dig deep and donate £5.00 now ir a bit more if you can.</p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Many thanks </span>time to visit my JustGiving page. All the money that you donate will go directly to the Barely Born Charity as i have already funded the race mylsef. </p>