Mim, Ruth & Pete Turner
Mim, Ruth and Pete's Brighton Half Marathon 2020 page
Fundraising for The Cindy Appleyard Foundation
Story
Here is why we have decided to run for The Cindy Appleyard Foundation.
At Christmas in 2012, when aged just nine months, our good friends Emily and Nick's 10 month old daughter became unexpectedly very ill. She suffered heart failure and was rushed to a specialist children’s hospital, the Freeman in Newcastle, 150 miles from her home. She was immediately put on life support in intensive care and went on the waiting list for a heart transplant. Meanwhile Emily and Nick relocated to the area from Manchester to be with Cindy and faced the prospect of being there for several months.
While there they met other families forced to leave behind their friends, families, jobs and schools with no notice to be with their sick child.
Sadly, after being on the ward for nearly two months, Cindy died before receiving a transplant. It was later discovered she had a genetic condition, mitochondrial trifunctional protein deficiency, which caused her heart to fail.
Since then, in memory of Cindy Emily has set up the Cindy Appleyard Foundation in memory of their beautiful daughter. The Foundation offers grants to help alleviate financial hardship faced by families when they find themselves with a sick child in hospital long term and often many miles from their home, just like Cindy was when she was poorly. This can help fund accommodation, travel costs and daily living expenses or general loss of earnings faced by families finding themselves suddenly far away from home and unable to work.
100% of funds raised goes straight to the families and the girls run the charity in their spare time and have zero over heads. So far the foundation has already helped over 80 families across the country experiencing this kind of desperation and trauma. We couldn’t even begin to imagine what that must be like but Emily and Nick have lived through that. By donating, no matter how small, you will be supporting this wonderful charity to continue to be able to help more and more families in need to make this devastating time somehow a little bit easier.
With love,
Mim, Ruth and Pete x
Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.