This year, little Izzy and I are taking on our first BIG fundraiser together - to travel the whole 26.2miles of a marathon. Now, because we both have mutliple disabilities this is no easy task (i say as if a marathon isnt difficult for non disabled people as well) so we are problem solving to ensure we can achieve our goal. so, we have decided we will be ‘running’, walking, wheeling, cycling and paddling our way through our marathon. It's just 8 days to go and Izzy has just been discharged from hospital last night.

We are fundraising for two reasons: to raise money for a specialist wheelchair required for my children and to raise funds for Pawsitive Squad CIC to enable us to provide high quality, affordable canine services to young people with additional needs. We will split funds raised 50/50 except where donors have specified where they would like funds to go to.

Here is our story:

Izzy, my wonderful daughter, was born at 24weeks gestation (16 weeks early) in 2016 weighing around 1lb1. After a very rocky start in the NICU things stayed just as fragile. Izzy is regularly in and out of hospital and has a complex neurodisability, among other complex health needs which mean she is unable to sit up unaided, is non verbal and has other complex needs. She needs a wheelchair to move around but we don't have one.

This is because it's not as simple as needing a standard infant wheelchair as my son also has additional needs and requires a seat as well so we need a double wheelchair with one seat that provides full postural support and a second seat that can take the weight and strength of my son. To add to the mix further I also have disabilities which impact on my strength and joints making pushing any significant weight difficult AND we can only travel by public transport so we need a system that's small enough to go on a bus! The cheapest quote we have had for a solution was around £4000 BUT that solution wouldn't fit on a bus so wouldn't enable us to do all the vital things we need to do like get to hospital appointments, baby groups and shops.

Basically, we have a lot of needs and complex circumstances that have made finding a suitable solution nearly impossible, the NHS can not fund anything suitable and while we hope to get some charity funding to help us access this vital piece of equipment waiting lists are very long, applications complex and in the interim we are really struggling.

Alongside raising my children I also run Pawsitive Squad which is a not for profit organisation which helps young people with additional needs through canine activities and specialist dog training so we are also trying to raise some funds for them through this marathon. As stated above we will split fundraised 50/50 between the cost of a wheelchair and Pawsitive Squad unless donors state where they specifically would like their funds to go.