Summerfield House of Marlborough College is raising money to raise awareness for two causes, Alport UK and the Leo Bush fund.

Alport UK is a patient lead charity supporting patients and researchers around the globe. The work the charity has done has established a worldwide patient support network and an international research collaborative for the discovery of new treatments for the condition. Any money donated will go towards creating a brighter future for people living with Alport Syndrome and their families. More information on the charity and the condition itself can be found at http://www.alportuk.org/about-alportuk

Alport UK is specifically important to Summerfield as one of the pupils, Jamie Walker (U6) has been diagnosed with Alports Syndrome since birth.

The Leo Bush fund is raising money to fund research and family support for babies born with genetic, neurological and life limiting conditions, in memory of Leo Bush.

Leo was born 24th October 2021 after an emergency c section, 9 weeks premature. Initially Leo’s health was on the up, however as time went on he suffered from countless setbacks that left him seriously unwell. It was at first unclear what the main cause for his decline in health was. However, due to specialised genetic testing at Great Ormond street hospital, doctors found an extremely rare mutation in Leo’s genes. It became clear the mutation had severe affects to Leo and unfortunately became too much for him. Leo died on the 10th January 2022.

Leo’s parents decided to raise awareness for babies born with rare life limiting conditions in order to help improve testing and diagnosis in more hospitals.

The Summerfield community has been moved by this story as his uncle, Mr Mike Bush, is one of our long standing tutors

We really believe in the importance of both these causes and we are aiming to raise as much awareness for them as possible. We thank you for any and all donations as well as spreading the word to whomever possible.