Alex’s Ironman challenge for Buzz

This July I’ll be taking on the IRONMAN UK in Bolton to help raise money towards life-changing stem cell therapy for my friend’s little boy Buzz.

The Bolton Ironman will see me swim 2.4 miles in the beautiful Pennington Flash Lake, followed by a gruelling 112-mile bike ride. This will see me do the two-loop journey from Pennington Flash and into the breath-taking Lancashire countryside and tackle the famous Sheep House Lane hill climb. To finish off there’ll be 26.2 mile run at Queens Park as we head into Bolton town centre, out and back through Queens Park completing four loops before finishing in Victoria Square.

For this challenge I’m hoping to raise £1000 towards the £55,000 needed! So every pound really does count, so please consider donating, no matter how small or large (if you can!). You can read more on Buzz’s story below or by checking out Buzz's Facebook page

Buzz's story

In December 2015, Buzz Rowswell was born full-term and healthy. But a few days after leaving hospital he fell very ill due to untreated new-born jaundice, which resulted in a permanent brain injury.

This type of brain injury is called Kernicterus and effects less than 1 in 100,000 children and is classed as a ‘never event’ (as in it shouldn’t happen) in many modern countries, as the professionals have all the necessary means of testing and treating jaundice.

However, the hospital and local community service neglected to take Buzz’s jaundice seriously and our little guy is now left living with the consequences.

Luckily Buzz is a real fighter and after being given a small percentage of survival and beating all the odds he has grown into the most charismatic, brave and loving little guy. But sadly due to his brain injury he has severe cerebral palsy and can’t crawl, walk, talk or sit up unaided... yet!

Due to his injury, Buzz also has a rare type of hearing loss called auditory neuropathy spectrum disorder (ANSD). In addition to this he also suffers with a lot of pain from constant muscle spasms and has an unsafe swallow so has to be fed and given his medications through a peg feeding tube directly into his tummy. As a result of all this Buzz has been classed as life limited.

Buzz and his amazing mum Vikki, dad Glenn and big brother Roo work relentlessly every day on a range of therapies and activities including physio, speech & language, occupational therapy, hydrotherapy, rebound therapy and many other activities to help Buzz progress in life.

But more can be done and we are trying to raise £55,000 so Buzz can take a series of trips to Panama for life-changing stem cell therapy, something that the NHS will not fund.

This type of stem cell therapy would mean injecting stem cells into Buzz to help repair some of the damaged tissue in the brain. As with any therapy there are no guarantees, but other children with the same brain injury have seen incredible results with one of Buzz’s Kernicterus friends starting to sit independently, say words and most importantly suffer a lot less pain.

So, how can you help? Quite simply by becoming one of Buzz’s Bees and helping to fundraise through a challenge or simply just by donating.

We just want to give Buzz the best chance at having a happy, healthy and long life and with your help we can.

Thank you so much on behalf of Buzz. xxx