On May 1st 2017, whilst my wife was changing my daughters nappy she got free of the grasp of nappy changing and crawled away, laughing as she did. Unbeknown to her I was ready and waiting to intercept, but as I grabbed her round the waist I felt something in my hand, a lump. We prodded around for a bit and looked up on the old faithful google, we came to the conclusion that it might just be a hernia. Not a big thing and certainly not something we wouldn't go to the doctors for.

The next day I went to work and Amy (my wife) took Ellie to the doctors, i got a call from Amy to tell me that the doctor has sent her to the hospital, bit of a concern but i thought 'well if there still there when i finish work then I'd go up there'. So I finished and went to the hospital, this is where the story gets real...

I got to the hospital, asked where they were, to be told that they were in a room. I followed the nurse to this room to find Amy, Ellie and my mother-in-law surrounded by a doctor and 3 nurses. Not particularly what i wanted to see as it was a bit daunting. The doctor sat me down to tell me that it wasn't a hernia but Cancer, a Wilms Tumour in fact. 

Wilms tumor (also called Wilms' tumor or nephroblastoma) is a type of childhood cancer that starts in the kidneys. It is the most common type of kidney cancer in children. About 9 of 10 kidney cancers in children are Wilms tumors

The world came crashing down around me, as you can imagine loads of questions came apparent but only 1 couldn't be answered and that was "why?", Why Ellie a 2 year old girl who's done nothing but be her cheery self? Still it will never be answered.

She went through 8 months of Chemotherapy and a week of radiotherapy all at Addenbrookes and Norfolk and Norwich hospitals.

She had an operation on the 20th June 2017 to take away the tumour and the Kidney that it was attached to, this date was pretty significant to me as its my birthday. Lets just say I'm a year younger than I actually am as I struck that day off.

It was a pretty hard time as we have 4 kids in all, and the first few weeks Amy and Ellie pretty much lived at Addenbrookes, when we live on the outskirts of Norwich. I was a single dad of 3 for a while, that was some hard times trying to remember everything, but we got through it.

Ellie now, well shes brilliant. Completely cured of cancer but we still have to take her every 3 months for scans and x-rays to Addenbrookes hospital just to make sure. 

Well that's the story but why am I doing this Skydive you ask?

Well after all this, Ellie got nominated to Lets Do It Anyway. On New years day 2019 two ladies from the charity came round and gave Ellie lots of gifts, Doll, 2 prams and a cot, Theatre Royal pantomime tickets, a chest of drawers and Poultons park tickets for the family. To say we were gob-smacked was an understatement.

So that is why I'm doing this skydive on the 21st September 2019, to give back to the charity that gave us so much. But to be honest i'm petrified of doing a skydive but rather excited at the same time. 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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