My daughter is called Evie Meachen and she is 6 yrs old. At 2weeks old Evie went in to heart failure and spent the 1st 3 months of her life at Freeman hospital heart unit and underwent open heart surgery at just 10 weeks old.

Evie still has valves in her heart that dont function properly which means she is in heart failure and has heart block.! She developed breathing issues around 2 years old and needed home oxygen and various medications and later 2 episodes where she needed to be on a ventilator in PICU at the RVI due to pnemonia Which lead to her having respiratory disease due to damage in her lungs.

She has faced many challenges in her short little life so far but moving to St Columbas school was the best!

- The school have supported Evie so much and to see how much she has grown and developed over the last couple of years has been amazing. During this pandemic Evie struggled without her school life but they bent over backwards to enable Evie to continue to attend on the days i needed to work. She was so well supported and safe i felt happy to leave her in the safety of St Columbas. They have ensured all children have been supported at home and school to continue to learn and grow and for that we are so so grateful. They have also helped to support the local community and most vulnerable by delivering food/supply parcels to those who needed but were not safe to leave their homes.

This year Evie was to run in the childrens 1 mile Great North Run- as it was cancelled we sat down and looked at lots of different charities/causes we could raise money for... but Evie was very clear and stated she was raising money for her “school!” 🥰..

. so here we are - Evie is going run 🏃‍♀️ 1 mile (with a few breaks to catch her breath 😤) and all the money she raises will go back to the school to say a MASSIVE THANK YOU to each and every person who has helped not only us as a family and Evie; but everyone who has been supported by this amazing School.

so.. no matter how big or small every penny you can donate will be put to good use and we are so very thankful to you all for helping Evie to raise some money to give back xxx🙏🏻