Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

On Saturday 5th June 2010, I took part in a Swimathon to raise funds for www.bechildcanceraware.org a charity set up by my brother-in-law and his wife, John & Sarah Drummond.

I set out to swim 64 lengths (one mile) within 45 minutes.  I actually swam this distance within 39 minutes, but went on to swim double this distance (128 lengths = two miles) within 83 minutes.

 Thank you soo much to every one who has so kindly donated to this wonderful charity.  See the following links:

www.bechildcanceraware.org

(Please look in the video section to see Ted appearing on channel 5 news, and a video made to show some of Ted's journey with cancer!)

and see:

www.justgiving.com/TedDrummondswimathonBCCA

Ted was diagnosed with Infantile Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia when he was 6 months old.  He was given a 50% chance of survival. That was 2 years ago and he has responded really well to treatment.  He is one of many children who are the faces of the new "Be Child Cancer Aware" charity, and it is this charity that we are raising funds for through our swimathon.

The Government currently give NO funding to any awareness campaigns for childhood cancer, yet childhood cancers claims more children than any other disease.  We aim to reach as many families in the UK as we are able, to familiarise them with the signs and symptoms of childhood cancer.  This all comes at a cost though, so we aimed to swim the equivalent width of the English channel (1360 lengths) on 5th June 2010.

Ted opened the event by swimming the first length in his arm bands, together with a nurse from Basildon Hospital who saved his life.  Ted has only just finished his 2 years chemotherapy, and the next few months are critical to his future.

Childhood cancer is not rare, it is claiming too many of our children.  There are 10,000 children receiving treatment for cancer in the UK at any one moment in time, and 10 families every day will be told their child has cancer.  28% of these children won't survive, and it's such a shame that in particular some of these will be due to late diagnosis!

Please help us get the word out and try to change these statistics.

Sponsorship is being raised through the Maria Watt Foundation's charity number for this event as "Be Child Cancer Aware" is still in the process of registering as a charity, so currently does not have it's own number.  All funds raised for this event will be passed to the "BCCA" campaign.

You can read more about Maria at:

 http://www.maria-watt.memory-of.com/About.aspx

And thank you to her mum Diane for allowing us to use the charity number, and for all the tireless work she puts in to raising child cancer awareness!

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 - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.