On Sunday 1st October, I will be running the Cardiff Half Marathon to help raise funds for Aoife. As most of you know, Aoife Thomas hasn’t had the easiest start in life. After being born, she battled with low blood sugars and remained in Special care for a month, whilst in hospital she battled with a number of other issues and endured seizures.

As a result, Aoifes parents, Brett & Roisin were advised that Aoife had some changes to her brain and over the coming months, she underwent a barrage of testing, blood tests, scans, MRI’s and biopsies to try and figure out what had happened.

In July 2016, Aoife was diagnosed with Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy, a movement disorder caused by brain damage at birth, in the lead up to or just after. Whilst further investigations were ongoing, Brett & Roisin set about adapting to life with the news and began fundraising for home adaptations and equipment that she will need to enable her to achieve simple daily tasks, like seating to allow her to safely eat and play. The average cost of this type of seating starts from £2000.

Unfortunately, not all equipment is available through the NHS, meaning they will need to self-fund a lot of over the years, your help in donating as much or as little as you can, will give Aoife the chance to fulfil her potential.