I am running the St. Albans Half Marathon on Sunday 11th June to raise money towards a new sensory area at AppleTrees Nursery where Imogen attends.

Imogen is our beautiful, loving, cheeky, wonderful daughter. In many ways she is like any other little girl of nearly three: wanting to play, explore, sing, dance, and make friends. But Imogen also has Global Developmental Delay, a broad term encompassing a range of developmental disabilities. She doesn't have a specific diagnosis, but a range of additional needs: speech and language delay, communication difficulties, reduced attention and sensory needs. Imogen has speech and language therapy, private occupational therapy for her sensory issues and is supported by Early Years Advisors at a Specialist Development Centre and an inclusion worker at AppleTrees.

The staff at AppleTrees are amazing at supporting Imogen and her additional needs and have been so accommodating. Imogen loves going every week, is so well-supported and has made some lovely friends, both children and adults, there. The new sensory area at AppleTrees will hugely benefit Imogen and her sensory needs. She struggles to focus on any activity for very long, but with sensory play and messy play she is at her happiest and most focused which helps with her development.

A sensory room can include lights, colours, sounds, sensory soft play objects, water and bubble tubes, and sensory boards. A sensory room can help those who have learning difficulties, developmental disabilities and sensory impairments learn to interact with the world around them. But sensory rooms are a huge benefit to every child and all children at AppleTrees will benefit from it while playing and exploring it.

Through my fundraising, I would like to help Imogen and her needs, help give all the children at AppleTrees a new space to enjoy, as well as giving something back to the nursery.

I hope this is something you would like to help me do. Thank you all, Kelly x