Kimberley O’Leary
Matthews Journey
Fundraising for Journey of a Lifetime Trust (JoLt)
Story
Matthew’s story so far.....
- Wearing rival footy shirts all week, Monday 9th April was Liverpool, Tuesday 10th Everton, Wednesday 11th Man U, Thursday 12th Man City, Friday 13th Chelsea, Saturday 14th Newcastle and lastly Sunday 15th was the dreaded Arsenal.....he did everyone and has raised around £170 (not including JustGiving page) way to go Matthew keep it up!!!
- On 27th April he will be holding a cake sale at his school~ made £193 (paid to JustGiving page) that’s awesome well done Matthew and CVC :)
- Beat the goalie was completed Saturday 5th May at St.Neots f.c club and raised £55
- Raffle has been drawn on 11th May and we had 34 winners and raised a total of £350, thank you to all the donations we had from local businesses of St.Neots inc; Beales, Pizza Express, Wetherspoons, Waitrose, JEM, Luscious Lippy, simply forever, molbys, Niro, Honeycomb photography, I-D image photography, 360, Shakie jakes, capsule, the confectionary fairies ;) all the winners have been notified, thank you to all that took part and helped :)
- Auctioning off a framed picture of 1966 World Cup Signed by Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters with authenticity certificate on eBay over next couple weeks (reserve price £50) details to follow....
- Car boot in Huntington sometime in June (date to be confirmed)
It’s not too late to get involved if you want to donate.....and below is the reason as to why we are doing all of this......
Matthew was born 11th May 2002, he had a rough start but left SCUBU to go home at a week old. At his 8 week check we were told there was nothing they could do he was blind and was diagnosed with retinal dysplasia in both eyes, leaving him with limited sight in his left eye only. This didn’t stop Matthew laughing and enjoying life.
When he turned 9 , he had a routine operation to remove his tonsils. Two days later he had complications and had to have second operation, this lead to more tests as to why. Many tests and appointments later they tell us he has a rare blood disorder called polycythemia which is a lifelong condition and they need to manage it on a regular basis, to keep other life threatening conditions from occurring.
Matthew has had numerous tests and treatment including blood tests, scans, bone marrow biopsies, and is a frequent visitor at the hospital. The condition and treatment often makes him quite poorly and yet he copes with it all and continues to enjoy life and keep on smiling.
Matthew is my inspiration and amazes me everyday, I am so proud of him. Back in November 2017, he was nominated for this year’s Journey of a Lifetime by the consultants at Addenbrooks hospital, to go trekking to Peru, Ecuador and Galapagos. When he received a letter in the post to say he was selected he was both shocked and excited at the same time. Never in million years did he think he would get such an opportunity.
This is why we are asking for your help, Matthew would be grateful for any support you can give him to raise the £5,500 he needs to make his dream come true.
Thank you for reading, supporting and donating.
Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
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