As some people may know my fiancé megan was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma in late 2016 . Since then she has undergone 2 surgeries to remove a growth resulting in her having a hole the size of a cricket ball in her leg. Through the healing process we realised the lack of awareness and knowledge people had about melanoma. Megan's melanoma started off as a mole and was noticed around 15 years ago and she expressed her concerns to her doctor on many occasions but in the 5 years before her diagnoses it started to change drastically in size colour and texture . Knowing that something wasn't right we went to see our GP who time and time again brushed it off as psoriasis/dry skin . Finally a breakthrough was made when we by chance had an appointment with a locum doctor who referred us for a biopsy immediately and from there she was diagnosed. Our advice to any one is if you see change in any mole or irregular marks on your skin no matter how small always question it , get it looked at and if your gut feeling is that something is wrong be persistent and forceful at your GP surgery because all they have to do is click a button and refer you for an appointment at the hospital that's how simple it can be , maybe if megan was referred the first time we went to our GP maybe the outcome would of been a hell of a lot different . The whole journey throughout her treatment was an emotional one. For us it was especially scary because we have children and they needed their mum to be ok. We had to wait for further results after the surgery as Megan also had to have biopsies on her lymph nodes as melanoma can spread through the lymph stream to other organs. Thankfully this wasn't the case and now Megan is in remission and being checked every 3 months, her scars are healed and were trying to move on. Melanoma UK is a charity that aim to raise awareness and support for skin cancer sufferers, and this is where I plan to donate half of the money raised.

The other half of the money is going to be donated to ward 28 at the Leicester Royal Infirmary. Again many of you will know this but Megan and both my daughters are carriers for a glycogen storage disease. Both girls for some reason still to be discovered are symptomatic and are currently following a emergency regime for ketotic hypoglycaemia. Farren in particular seems to suffer the most from this illness with numerous hospital admissions since she was 10 months old. It can be very scary as there isn't particularly any warning signs of her blood sugar being low and she was too young to tell us how she felt. The majority of her hospital stays have been on ward 28 where Farren actually spent her first birthday. Although her illness can be controlled day to day through diet, there are times where other minor illnesses can make a huge impact on her blood sugar meaning its unstable and impossible to control at home or without the assistance of IV fluids. There have been times for us where she has been very ill and as parents its been hard to see. However we are so grateful to all the staff on ward 28 whether that be for just the support they've given us when were worried, upset or sometimes frustrated- to the fast actions of the nurses when a canula fails in the middle of the night and they still manage to keep her stable in other ways. Were immensely proud of Farren for how brave she has always been throughout all this she is our little superhero. Ward 28 have been fantastic to us and our girl and we really would like to give back to them