This year myself, my son and daughter are raising money for Natasha Allergy Research Foundation by myself running a 10km race each month of 2023 (and Maddie & Oliver doing as many fun runs they can, about 8).

As someone who has a daughter with a severe allergy it is a charity that means a lot to me.

My daughter, Maddie, is 8 years old and is severely allergic to peanuts, walnuts and pecan.

Back in 2018, we had to use her EpiPen after she was exposed to a biscuit which had been inadvertently cross-contaminated with peanuts by the vendor, even after receiving confirmation that it was safe. 

Later, Maddie complained of a tummy ache (which got a lot worse), her face and back came up in hives and her mouth started itching.  Breathing then became restricted. We used her EpiPen and was blue-lighted to hospital from the side of a motorway, where she had to have a further shot of adrenaline. This reaction took her a good few weeks to recover from physically but has left mental scars on us as a family and herself.

It's not easy living with a severe allergy, we all: continually check labelling (as labels often change so foods we thought were safe may not be in the future); have very difficult conversations each time we go out as eateries are naturally cautious but that often results in a very limited choice; educating Maddie, friends & family on what is safe, what's not and what to do when symptoms begin.

As parents, we are immensely proud of Maddie for her positive attitude and responsibility - she will read labels herself, not take foods from others and not get too upset if she can't have something she really wants when eating out :)

I'm raising money for Natasha's Foundation to help them continue the fantastic work it does to try and eradicate allergies and constantly push government and businesses to take better care and responsibility of labelling what is in their products.  

Please visit their website (https://www.narf.org.uk/) as Natasha tragically died from eating food which didn't have the correct allergy labelling.  Since then, the charity forced through the implementation of Natasha's Law in 2018 to try to stop the same thing happening again and started their £2.2m clinical trial in 2021 - this is just the start.

It would mean a huge amount to me, Maddie, our family and the allergy community, if you are able to give anything at all, no matter how small.

Here's the event calendar I'm planning and Maddie is entering the kids races in half of these:

29/01/2023    Not the Roman IX 12k DONE
12/02/2023    Winter Warmer Run 10k Bristol DONE
12/03/2023    Tamworth 10k DONE
02/04/2023    Regency 10k DONE
07/05/2023    Great Birmingham Run 10k DONE
11/06/2023    Cheltenham Running Festival 10k DONE
16/07/2023    Compton Verney 10k DONE
27/08/2023    The Midlands Spitfire 10k DONE
03/09/2023    Stratford 10k DONE
08/10/2023    Alcester 10k DONE
29/10/2023    Kingfisher Redditch 10k DONE
19/11/2023    Coventry 10k DONE

From only starting to run from September 2022, I'm aiming for a total time of 50mins (updated March to now 41mins)!

James, Caroline, Maddie and Oliver xx