James Nunn
3 Peaks Challenge for The Children's Hyperinsulinism Fund
Fundraising for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity
Story
Update 12/06/10 - We all completed the challenge in just over 23 hours. We started at 4.30pm at Ben Nevis, it was very cold at the top which we hadn’t really expected! We started Scafell just before 4am and made very good progress – this put us slightly ahead of schedule. Snowdon treated us to perfect conditions and even after virtually no sleep and two hard climbs we were able to make good progress and complete our challenge. A massive thank you to Charlie Noden our ‘man with a van’ for the weekend who got us to all the right places in good time. Also a big thank you to Jon Hughes (www.jthughes.co.uk) who very kindly lent us a vehicle big enough to get us all around – so if you’re in the market for a new Mitsubishi, Honda or Nissan do look them up! Finally if you would like to see some photos and are on facebook then CLICK HERE
---------------------------------------------
Hello from Nick, James, Sarah, Greg, Amy, Mark and Hannah.
Nick’s nephew Jack was born with Congenital Hyperinsulinism or HI - this is the most frequent cause of severe, persistent hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in newborns and children. In 25-40% of affected children it leads to lasting consequences such as developmental delay, mental retardation, or even death. It is due to unregulated insulin release from the pancreas.
HI was not detected in Jack at birth (it is very difficult to do so) and the end result was that Jack’s blood sugar dropped to these dangerous levels. He was rushed to intensive care where he had a seizure and the initial prognosis was that he could be severely brain damaged. Fortunately this was not the case, although the first few weeks of his life were incredibly traumatic, his type of disorder turned out to be transient and hopefully his seizure has left no long term damage.
Jack and his family were very lucky but many are not - because HI is so rare, only occurring in approximately 1/25,000 to 1/50,000 births, there is very limited research on the condition (as well as very limited facilities, equipment and specialists necessary to diagnose and offer the best treatment for this disease). As a consequence, families of children with this condition have had little hope of finding a cure or having their questions answered.
Many children with this condition are very difficult to manage medically and families face a lifetime of frequent blood glucose monitoring, long-term treatment with drugs and difficulty in feeding which may require a nasogastric tube or a gastrostomy. Many of the children end up having an operation to remove part or all of the pancreas, this then leaves the risk of developing diabetes and malabsorption of food.
The Children's Hyperinsulinism Fund was set up by Dr Khalid Hussain of Great Ormond Street Hosptial (GOSH) to take this important research forward. The Fund wants to be able to give families the hope of a better life for their children. With the money Nick raises GOSH hope to employ a full time Research Nurse, a Medical Research Fellow (Dr), Technicians/laboratory based people and equipment, helping children like Jack.
The Children's Hyperinsulinism Fund is a Fund within the Special Trustees Charity of Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
3 Peaks Challenge:
Over the last few months you may have heard us mention that we are planning to take on the ‘3 Peak Challenge’ on 11th June 2010. For those of you that haven’t heard of the 3 Peaks it involves climbing the three highest mountains in the UK – namely Ben Nevis in Scotland, Scafell Pike in England and Snowdon in Wales. The aim is to do it in 24 hours or as near to as possible! Why have we decided to take on this sleep depriving, thigh burning blister feast? Simply because we want to raise as much money as possible for some very worthy charities. All monies raised will be going to charity; we are funding the logistics of the event out of our own pockets. Charlie Noden our driver will be taking on the equally tough challenge of driving round the clock to deliver us to our start points. You are currently on page for the Children's Hyperinsulinism Fund but If you would like to link to our other charities please do: Macmillan http://www.justgiving.com/macmillan3pc Warwickshire Northamptonshire Air Ambulance http://www.justgiving.com/wnaa3pc Birmingham Children's Hospital Charities - http://www.justgiving.com/bc3pcOf course it is a huge personal challenge for each of us, we are not exactly renowned for our endurance fitness or navigation skills! Please dig deep, it will help us through the pain!
If you know somebody who might like to sponsor us please do forward on this email.About JustGiving:
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 - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. So please dig deep and donate now.