Our gorgeous daughter Heidi was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) in September 2015, at the age of 2. She was put on the highest intensity chemotherapy treatment protocol which lasted 9 months and is now on Maintenance chemotherapy until Feb 2018.  She has coped brilliantly with all the chemo, lumbar punctures, blood transfusions, hospital stays etc, and we are immensely proud of her. Now that she is in the Maintenance stage of treatment it means life can resume a different sort of 'normal', and so we should have more time to do all we can to raise money for the various charities that have supported, and will continue to support, us on this journey through to February 2018.

We want to support Be Child Cancer Aware as they are the charity behind the 'Beads of Courage' programme. This is where Heidi receives a bead every time she has bloods taken, a visit from the nurse, chemotherapy, blood transfusion, visit from the social worker, antibiotics, steroids, and so much more. Although, hopefully, Heidi will have no memory of the treatment, the beads are something we can show her to let her know how brave she was at such a young age. She also loves threading the beads and I'm sure she'll love playing with them, wearing them, and showing them to everyone once she's older. We are lucky in that the RUH (Bath Hospital) have a sponsor for the programme, but not all hospitals have this in place so not all children suffering with cancer, will have this visual representation of their journey. Hence we would love to offer some support for the charity to extend their programme to reach more children.

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. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.