Exactly 6 months ago today, on March 4th 2017, our 10 year old daughter Daisy underwent major neurosurgery to remove a life-threatening brain abscess. We were on the other side of the world, in New Zealand, 6 months in to a year's adventure around the world when she became dangerously ill with bacterial meningitis that then led to her developing a brain abscess.

Having been rushed by ambulance from a remote corner of the North Island, she was diagnosed and treated for bacterial meningitis in Rotorua Hospital before being transferred by emergency air ambulance to New Zealand's flagship children's hospital, Starship, in Auckland. Here the Neurosurgery team discovered the brain abscess and performed the surgery that saved her life.

We were unbelievably lucky to have found ourselves in the care of the most wonderful team of consultants, nursing staff and rehabilitation teams through what I can only describe as the darkest months imaginable.

The consultant who headed up her care told us at her discharge that he could count on one hand the children who had survived what she went through with no life-altering side effects, she is our little miracle and we wanted to do something in return to show our utter gratitude to everyone involved in her care.

Now back in England, in our new home in Cornwall, we have decided to run the coastline of Cornwall to raise money for the three key charitable trusts: Rotorua Hospital, The Rescue Helicopter Trust and The Starship Foundation.

We wanted to stay safe, so avoiding some of the more perilous parts of the coast path with four young children in tow we have decided to run the bays! According to Wikipedia there are 38 bays in Cornwall, from our map 35 of these have beaches that we can run, so run them we will! We intend to start from the North Coast border with Devon and run our way across every bay to the South Coast Devon border, over the next 6 months. Grabbing every free weekend or school holiday and spending it together as a family surrounded by the wild, healing sea air to blow away the bad memories, enrich our love of this gorgeous county AND most importantly hopefully raise lots of money!

For more information or to follow our progress, check out our blog: O'Sheas Run The Bays Blog