Our Niece and 1st cousin Natalie gave birth to her first baby Luca on 25th November 2008 weighing 7lb 14.5oz. Despite being born a really healthy little boy, he tragically contracted a life threatening infection called Group B streptococcus (GBS) when he was only 17 days old. The illness was just too powerful, and it took hold of his body in the form of meningitis with septicaemia. Even though he was given the most extraordinary care in the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) at St Mary's Hospital, little Luca's fight for life was just too tough, and he sadly died 4 days later.
Natalie and her husband Toby saw such a heroic show of commitment, patience and determination by the team at St Mary's who fought so hard to save Luca's life. They were truly incredible, and without the support of the charity COSMIC (Children of St Mary's Intensive Care), only a fraction of what they achieve would be possible. Charitable donations via COSMIC have paid for nearly all the life-saving equipment on the PICU at St Marys Hospital, as well as funding research into the causes, effects and treatment of life-threatening childhood diseases. Without the fundraising efforts of COSMIC, many more children would die each year. The unit could not exist without donations from people like you.
To support this wonderful unit we, the two aunties and 1st cousin, have decided to run the Addidas 5k Challenge on 6th September. None of us have run before, in fact at least one of us hasn't done any sport since school (!) and we are putting our all into achieving what seems like a massive feat. We hope you will support us in any way you can.....and just hope we manage to reach the 5K on the day!!
Many many thanks
Dawn, Jed and Zoe
