After various years of dodging fundraising events and sponsoring more adventurous souls, I along with 8 great friends & family  have signed up for the BUPA 10km fun run  around the sites of London on Monday 31 May 2010, to raise money for the Evelina Children’s Hospital (Guys & St Thomas).

Our reason to support this charity is to thank them for all the care and attention my son Thomas received from the nurses and the whole team who were involved in his open heart surgery.  To explain further Thomas was born with a rare heart condition, Tetralogy of Fallot, which consists of 4 problems;

1. Sub-Pulmonary stenosis, a narrowing below the pulmonary valve that results in the blood having difficulty getting from the right ventricle to pulmonary vein

2. Ventricular Septal defect, which is a hole between the right and left side of the heart

3. Over Riding Aorta, the entrance of the aorta lies directly above the two sides of the heart so deoxygenated blood is mixed with the oxygenated blood

4. Thick right ventricle, right ventricle becomes thickened as it forces blood into the narrowed pulmonary artery

Although both Jo and I knew of Thomas’ heart condition antenatally nothing could prepare us for the day when Thomas was admitted to hospital on 7 October 2009.  Jo noticed that he was not his usual self and took him to the local hospital where they carried out various checks and confirmed he would need to go the Evelina Hospital immediately for specialist care.  We were rushed up to the hospital in an ambulance and on arrival Thomas was monitored, put on beta blockers and morphine with a view to sending us home in a couple of days, as long as he reacted well to the treatment.  Unfortunately this was not the case and Thomas was scheduled for heart surgery on 15 October 2009.  The dreaded day of the surgery came around and we carried Thomas down to the anaesthetist ready for his operation. Watching him going under general anaesthetic and not knowing whether we would see him again was the hardest day of lives.  We were told the operation would take at least 5hrs and so we were surprised when we got a call 3½ hrs later from the hospital to tell us the operation had been a success and Thomas was now in intensive care.   Thomas spent the next few days in intensive care responding well to the treatment and was transferred to the ward on the Saturday evening.  We spent the next 5 days on the ward, which was not without ups and downs; and were discharged on the Thursday a week after his surgery, as Thomas had made a satisfactory recovery.

Six months have now passed and although Thomas still requires monitoring by the cardiologist at the hospital, he is now just like any other little boy, full of smiles and laughter, and without the help of all those at the hospital our lives would not be as they are today.

Team Thomas (9 of us) are aiming to raise as much money as possible for the hospital charity, so please give generously and we will do our best to make your donation really count and look to finish the 10km course in the shortest time possible.

Thanks for visiting our fundraising page.

Team Thomas (Matt, Jo, James, Mel, Stuart, Jo, Bryan, Damian, Marc)