Is there any greater desperation than a parent pleading for
the life of their child? That moment when your heart rips open and your soul, the very core of your being, a place so deep you didn’t know existed starts to suck away at you, you can’t breathe, you scream and you will do anything, ANYTHING to save your child, but all you can do is hold their hand and put their life in the hands of a team of strangers – a team of strangers who turn out to be your heroes.

Last October we nearly lost our son. A massive asthma attack triggered by a virus too great for his little body to fight and too great for normal treatment to fix nearly took him from us.  Ethan spent 6 days on a ventilator in a medically induced coma (also known as on a life support machine), surrounded by machines, with lines coming out of every place they could put one to try and save his life. He fought, he fought so hard - and eventually he won. After a long road of recovery, Ethan came home, back to where he belongs with his sister, family, and his toys.

Ethan asked me to do this run. He knows I run for children’s
charities, and he said, “Mummy will you run so all children can get home to play with their toys, because no kids should be stuck in hospital”.  How could I say no to that? 

Thanks to the medical HEROES at the Royal North Staffs
University Hospital my little super-hulk-hero came home.  We want to raise money to provide funds for the PICU (Paediatric Intensive Care Unit) to help to fund more equipment so that more and more children can get better, so parents can wrap them in their arms and take them home.  The team of Drs and nurses who work on this unit are incredible - there is no thank you big enough!

I know I have asked you to sponsor me in the past – and I really struggled to commit to this one, firstly because I have asked before for different causes, secondly because no challenge is representative of what Ethan achieved, but mostly because I still can’t bear to relive those days of October 2020. But here we are – my race for my
child.

I thank you for any donation no matter how big or how small
and if you can’t donate – next time you see Ethan, give him an extra big smile and a high five because my little boy has been through so much and yet he never stops smiling and please tell Frankie she’s amazing – because her world was torn upside down too and she still gets scared that Ethan – her super hero - will go back to hospital, a fear I guess that never leaves you when you've felt it.

Thanks for reading. Thanks for supporting – this one’s for
my babies, Ethan and Frankie xxxxx

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