Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Amber - A daughter, granddaughter, niece,cousin and goddaughter, 2 years old in June, has been through things some people don’t even go through in a lifetime. As a baby she had a soft cleft palate impacting on her speech and ability to suck, this meant that when she was 1year old she had to have major surgery to repair it. My mum is doing a sprint triathlon the day after me, to raise money for the charity that supports Amber with this, so please go check out her Just Giving page  www.justgiving.com/fundraising/natalie-black3 (CLAPA – Cleft Lip & Palate Association www.clapa.com).  She has never done a tri before.

Then the worst happened. On the 13^th of March Amber was diagnosed with a Retinoblastoma in her left eye. When I first found out about this I was told that there was something behind her eye, a growth. It wasn’t until a few weeks later that I realized Amber had Cancer. For me this was a massive shock, the word Cancer brought about so many feelings, I was scared. As a 12 year old I didn’t know about this type of cancer, I knew about the more common ones like breast or lung cancer. So for my own benefit I researched it (https://chect.org.uk) and
found out a lot. Retinoblastoma is a rare form of cancer that rapidly develops from the immature cells of a retina, the light-detecting tissue of the eye. Within just one week of being diagnosed Amber started her first chemotherapy.

I decided I wanted to do something proactive, to help Amber and other individuals with this type of Cancer. I have therefore taken up the challenge to do the Hever Triathlon on the 23rd September 2018. I have never done anything like this before I will have to swim 300-meters in an open lake, ride 8km and after all that run 4km. I am not a bad swimmer and quite enjoy it, but the idea of being in the lake with all the squidgy stuff between my toes doesn’t appeal to me at all! I have never been in a bike race, it seems rather daunting but for me I think my biggest challenge will be the run, as I don’t have much stamina, so I am going to really struggle. This is however, is the least I can do, when I think about the daily challenges my goddaughter, aunt and uncle face.

Raising awareness for this charity is very important to me because Amber is only 1 ½, which is a very young age to go through all this pain, I don’t want anyone else to have to experience this. All of the money that I raise is going to go towards CHECT (The Childhood Eye
Cancer Trust -https://chect.org.uk ).

All together I hope to raise £1000 and I would love my goal to be reached and beaten!!  So please be generous x. I have already started my training and will keep you updated.

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