On Sunday October 22nd 2017, a team of us will be running the Stroud Half Marathon to help raise vital funds for our colleague, Emma Getvoldsen, who until she became seriously ill in January 2016 was the group internal recruiter for Passionate About People.

Emma is our "Charity of the year" and this is her story -

Emma had her first operation when she was just 18 - that was over 20 years ago and she has had an average of one procedure per year since then for a host of gynaelogical problems.

Four years ago, Emma made the difficult decision to have a radical hysterectomy removing her uterus and both ovaries - she hoped this would improve her quality of life and end the annual surgeries she required. Unfortunately, due to an incredibly rare condition that only effects one in a million people called "ovarian remnant syndrome" one of the ovaries that was removed grew back! This created a pelvic mass causing immense pain that was only eased with a concoction of pain medications including morphine. Emma's internal organs were fused together due to all of the scar tissue from her previous operations which also caused pain and complications.

Despite having previously been treated by several U.K. Surgeons Emma was told that due to her condition being so rare there was nothing that anyone in this country could do to help and no one was prepared to operate meaning that she faced a lifetime of pain and further complications. Emma refused to accept this fate and after carrying out her own research she found a surgeon in Atlanta, Georgia who had operated on 100 cases with 100% success rate and on 6th June 2017 Emma had major surgery performed at Northside Hospital, Atlanta. The surgery was more complicated than anyone could have imagined - it was discovered that Emma had a Grade 1 carcinoma tumour growing in her appendix and she also needed to have a stent fitted between her kidneys and bladder which meant further surgery was required several weeks later . Emma and her Mum were in Atlanta for a total of ten weeks as opposed to the original planned six weeks!

To date the medical bills alone have cost well over $50,000 and Emma has to return to Atlanta for further surgery in October ...... which will involve flight costs, living costs,transport costs and yet more medical bills!