Story
<p><span style="color: #000000;">Thank you for visiting my fundraising page.<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span>Some people think I’m loopy but sometime ago I decided to give myself a bit of a challenge and climb a rather big hill - Kilimanjaro!<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> </span>I will begin the 6 day trek on September 15th 2011, when we will be climbing to reach Kili’s summit at 5896 metres!</span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000;">I am honoured to be doing this in memory of Alfie and to help his very brave parents Lucy and Rob to raise funds and awareness on brain tumours in children.</span></p>
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<p><strong><span style="color: #0000ff;">Alfie’s story:</span></strong></p>
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<p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Alfie was just <span style="font-family: Verdana;">five and a half months old when he was diagnosed with a tumour in the posterior fossa part of his brain. </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #0000ff;">As the tumour was attached to the brainstem, it was inoperable, and doctors informed Lucy and Rob that he only had weeks to live.<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> The tumour was growing so fast that he died a week later on the 25</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><sup>th</sup> June 2007. </span></span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #0000ff;">Just two weeks earlier I had spoken to Lucy to arrange meeting up and to be introduced to Alfie for the very first time.<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Alfie was already very ill at this stage but Doctors had told his parents that it was a stomach virus.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> That weekend Lucy and Rob had to make two emergency hospital visits with Alfie before he was transferred to Great Orm<strong> </strong>ond Street Hospital.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> After further examinations and waiting Alfie was finally diagnosed with a brain tumour.</span></span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #0000ff;">I was deeply saddened to have never had the opportunity to meet such a wonderful little boy and nothing can describe the sense of loss and heartache that his brave parents will always live with.</span></p>
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<p><span style="color: #0000ff;">The Alfie Morland Umbrella Fund has been set up with the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust (SDBTT), to research this type of tumour and to raise awareness at how devastating and aggressive it can be.<br /><br /><span style="color: #000000;"><strong>Some Facts:</strong></span></span></p>
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<p>*Between 2004 - 2006 only <strong>1.8%</strong> of total cancer research spend in the UK went towards brain tumour research however: <br />16% went towards leukemia research<br />19% went towards breast cancer resarch<br /><br />*UK diagnosis is 3 times as long as any other european industrialised state<br /><br />*Alfie's brain tumour was one of 125 known types of brain tumour<br /><br />*When the Alfie Jack Morland fund reaches £75,000, Lucy and Rob can choose to put a world class researcher in place to help find the cause of and cure to Alfie's particularly agressive form of brain tumour<br /><br /><br /></p>
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<p><em>Once again, thank you for your support.<span style="font-family: Verdana;"> Any donation, no matter what amount, will help support the research that needs to be done to fight this devastating disease.</span></em> <em> </em> <em>Updates on our fitness preparations for Kilimanjaro will follow so watch this space!</em> <em> </em></p>
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<p>Lucy</p>
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<p>x</p>
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<p><span style="color: #000000;"><em>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.</em></span></p>
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