Thank you for visiting my fundraising page. 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! I will begin the 6 day trek on September 15th 2011, when we will be climbing to reach Kili’s summit at 5896 metres!
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.
Alfie’s story:
Alfie was just five and a half months old when he was diagnosed with a tumour in the posterior fossa part of his brain.
As the tumour was attached to the brainstem, it was inoperable, and doctors informed Lucy and Rob that he only had weeks to live. The tumour was growing so fast that he died a week later on the 25 June 2007.
Just two weeks earlier I had spoken to Lucy to arrange meeting up and to be introduced to Alfie for the very first time. Alfie was already very ill at this stage but Doctors had told his parents that it was a stomach virus. That weekend Lucy and Rob had to make two emergency hospital visits with Alfie before he was transferred to Great Orm ond Street Hospital. After further examinations and waiting Alfie was finally diagnosed with a brain tumour.
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.
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.
Some Facts:
*Between 2004 - 2006 only 1.8% of total cancer research spend in the UK went towards brain tumour research however:
16% went towards leukemia research
19% went towards breast cancer resarch
*UK diagnosis is 3 times as long as any other european industrialised state
*Alfie's brain tumour was one of 125 known types of brain tumour
*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
Once again, thank you for your support. Any donation, no matter what amount, will help support the research that needs to be done to fight this devastating disease. Updates on our fitness preparations for Kilimanjaro will follow so watch this space!
Lucy
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