The Miles for Miles fundraising page
Jonathan Bruce is raising money for St George's Hospital Charity
Story
Miles Herne is 16 years old. He was a pupil at Parkside
School in Cobham until 2015 when he moved to Lancing College to join his older
brother Max, having been awarded an all-round scholarship. Miles is a typical
boy and indeed, “all-rounder” sums him up perfectly – confident, happy,
hardworking, predicted fantastic grades in his upcoming GCSEs, talented in art
and DT, a keen and very able sportsman, and also a loyal friend to many.
Three weeks prior to being admitted to hospital, Miles began
to suffer with throbbing head- aches and sickness, which initially was put down
to food poisoning, then possibly migraines. It was a doctor at St Peter’s
Hospital who decided they should do a precautionary MRI scan. The scan showed that
Miles had a tumour on his brain that had grown to the size of a tangerine. This
had caused fluid to build up, which in turn was causing the headaches and
vomiting.
On 21st March 2018, Miles was taken by ambulance to St
George’s Hospital in Tooting where he was admitted to the Paediatric Neurology
department. He underwent 7.5 hours of emergency life-saving surgery to remove
the fluid, remove the tumour and also to stop a subsequent bleed on his brain.
Thankfully, the entire tumour was removed.
Miles’s journey has been a difficult one. He did not
“come-to” after his surgery and left everyone baffled with all the symptoms he
was displaying, over the course of 4 weeks. In short, he was a mystery and the
neurology team and all other specialists were perplexed. The family were told
only time would tell how Miles would “wake up”. Miles is now making amazing
progress, and every day, he shows improvement.
The staff at St George’s, Tooting have provided Miles and
his family with the best care and support they could have hoped for, proving
how wonderful the NHS is. However, the Paediatric Neurology ward lacks
equipment for teenagers, such as a wheelchair that fits Miles’s 6 foot plus
frame, shower hoists and other really important basic equipment to aid his
recovery and allow the wonderful staff there to help him in the best way
possible.
This is where “Miles for Miles” begins. We want to raise
money for the Paediatric Neurology ward at St George’s, whose team saved his
life.
There are a number of events happening and ways in which you
can help and make a massive difference to the Paediatric Neurology ward.
Upcoming events:
- Ongoing: www.pineappleblend.com sells the most amazing T-shirts, hoodies, and other accessories. Please take a look – they will donate a huge 10% of all sale proceeds to Miles For Miles. Please use code miles4miles at checkout.
- St. George’s Hill Squash Club are hosting a number of events in the summer, during which they will be raising money for “Miles for Miles”. Thank you for including in your fundraising activities
If you would like further details on any of the above events, please email milesformiles2018@gmail.com
Past events:
- Monday 14th May Sponsored Swim - Over the course of two weeks, the current pupils of Parkside School swam over 322 miles for Miles (that is around 26,000 lengths!!!) Some of the staff and parents also got in the pool. Well done to all – an amazing achievement!
- Thursday 24th May Biscuit Bear sale - Year 2 boys from Parkside School made and sold their delicious Parkside Biscuit Bears outside Waitrose in Cobham and at school. They impressively raised just under £800. Well done!
- Friday 25th May Sponsored Shave - To show his support for Miles and all the Parkside boys who swum, Mr Beach, Parkside School Headmaster, pledged to have his hair shaved if the total raised reached £32,500. We are pleased to say the total was smashed and true to his word, he took to the barber’s chair with the whole school there to cheer him on. Thank you to all who donated …… and bravo Mr Beach!
- Saturday 26th May Sponsored Shave - Miles’ older brother Max, plus Joe, Frankie, Connor, Will, Ollie, Omar and Max D, all from Lancing College, shaved their hair (and donated it to a wig company who makes wigs for boys). What a fabulous thing to do! Amazing boys! Check out the photo of Miles with all the boys showing off their new haircuts!
- Saturday 26th May Catherine Moore’s Birthday – Catherine is a friend of Miles’s mother, Monique, and it was her 50th birthday in May. She kindly asked her friends to donate to “Miles for Miles” rather than buy her a birthday present. Thank you so much to all of you that did and also to Catherine for her generosity – we hope you had the most wonderful birthday!
- Monday 28th May Sponsored Swim - Parkside School hosted a further sponsored swim to allow friends and family of Miles to show their support and swim even more miles for Miles. More than 30 people took to the pool and swum a very impressive 40 miles (that is over 3,000 lengths). Miles and his family popped in to see all their friends along with his lovely physio, Maria from St George’s. Thank you to all who came along whether it be to swim, count lengths, or offer support. It was a fabulous morning!
- Monday 28th May “Baked and Battered extravaganza” – After swimming all those lengths, obviously nothing but delicious Baked and Battered pizza would do. Baked and Battered not only provided the pizza, but they have also most generously donated their sales proceeds from the morning to Miles for Miles. In total £168 – Thank you so much for your kindness…….. that is a lot of very yummy pizza!!
Friday 22ndJune: The ultimate sponsored swim – Miles’ journey was swum by the “dream team” led by his Parkside swimming coach, Steve Luff……… Miles’ journey began at St Peter’s hospital. He was then rushed to St. George’s Hospital in Tooting for lifesaving surgery before moving to The Royal Marsden in Sutton to begin his cancer treatment. Finally in mid-May he was allowed to go home, firstly for a day visit to spend some precious time with family but thereafter he was discharged to complete his cancer treatment as an outpatient. The journey that started at St Peter’s and finally ended back at home some 10 weeks later is 45 miles. Steve Luff, his two boys, Max and Josh, Miles’ brother Max Herne, plus Parkside teachers Mrs Caulder, Mr Harvey and Mrs Baker together swam those 45 miles and raised even more money for St Georges – what an incredible team effort and a simply amazing end to the Miles for Miles swimming extravaganza!!!!
Please click on the link to see a short video of the day. https://www.facebook.com/steve.luff.54/videos/10216266836006538/
- Wednesday 27th June: James Meade is an ex Parkside boy and he walked an incredible 50 miles through the night back to his current school in June raising money for Miles for Miles. Fantastic effort James!!!
- Sunday 29thJuly Prudential Ride 100: Peter Barrand battled the driving rain and cycled a staggering 100 miles to raise money for Miles for Miles. Amazing achievement!
- Sunday 16th September London to Brighton Cycle Ride: Deborah Bruce and Catherine Barrand cycled the 56 miles from London to Brighton to raise money for Miles for Miles. Thank you for all the support and kind donations - it certainly helped get them up those hills!
Other ways to help:
St George’s Hospital Charity have their own events coming up which you can participate in to raise money as part of team “Miles for Miles”. These include British 10k, Ride London, Royal Parks Half Marathon, Skydives and the 2019 London Marathon. If you are interested in doing an event on your own or with a friend please contact Mari-Louise White and tell her you are part of the “Miles for Miles” team. marilouise.white@stgeorges.nhs.uk
What’s next for Miles?
Miles is now continuing his brave journey of recovery at the Royal Marsden Teenage and Young Adult unit in Sutton, where he is receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy, for a duration of 9 months to ensure the tumour does not return. Part of this will be as an in-patient until he is rehabilitated enough to be able to go home.
And finally:
Thank you for reading and using our ‘Just Giving’ page to sponsor an event or simply to donate.
The Herne family – parents, Monique and Mark, and brother, Max, thank you so much in advance for your help in making a real difference in supporting Miles and other children like him.
Fundraising Update
"We have been overwhelmed with the community’s support for Miles for Miles and I wanted to update you on the impact the fund is making.
The first requests for funding from the Miles for Miles fund have been an MPS chair, Heron chair, Phoenix chair and an XPanda chair. These chairs will help improve the patient experience, nursing care and therapy rehabilitation opportunities in the hospital. The four pieces of equipment can be used across the paediatric wards, but will have the most benefit for those with significant motor impairment. It will allow our amazing medical team to offer appropriate seating for all these patients – whether that’s somewhere comfortable to sit around the ward to increase the amount of time patients spend out of bed or a specially-designed shower chair to enable showering facilities earlier on in a patient’s stay.
Conversations between Monique, Mark and Miles’ medical team are ongoing, so we can ensure that the incredible fundraising you have all contributed to will have a lasting impact on the paediatric neuro team at St George’s Hospital. We will be sure to keep you updated on how the funds are continuing to be used. Everything we do at St George’s Hospital is made possible because of supporters like you who care so much and want to make our wards better places for the whole community. Thank you for your generosity."
The first requests for funding from the Miles for Miles fund have been an MPS chair, Heron chair, Phoenix chair and an XPanda chair. These chairs will help improve the patient experience, nursing care and therapy rehabilitation opportunities in the hospital. The four pieces of equipment can be used across the paediatric wards, but will have the most benefit for those with significant motor impairment. It will allow our amazing medical team to offer appropriate seating for all these patients – whether that’s somewhere comfortable to sit around the ward to increase the amount of time patients spend out of bed or a specially-designed shower chair to enable showering facilities earlier on in a patient’s stay.
Conversations between Monique, Mark and Miles’ medical team are ongoing, so we can ensure that the incredible fundraising you have all contributed to will have a lasting impact on the paediatric neuro team at St George’s Hospital. We will be sure to keep you updated on how the funds are continuing to be used. Everything we do at St George’s Hospital is made possible because of supporters like you who care so much and want to make our wards better places for the whole community. Thank you for your generosity."
Mari-Louise White - St George's Charity