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Our aim was to raise £2,500 for Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice by taking part in 2 events this year.

The 1st event, Midlands Tough Mudder, took place on the 12th July, a 12-mile Mud/Obstacle Course and was a great success helping us to get over the £1,000 mark. Team members were Samantha Coombe, Cheryl Coombe, Tony Deakin, Dean Arey, Jordan Bond and myself, Dave Surgey

Our next event was the C2C Sustrans where a team comprising of Dean Arey, Steve Clarke, Chris Davies, Lee Gallagher, Paul Gallagher, Martin Holmes, Gary Hurditch, Mark Levick, Damion Wright & myself took on the C2C Sustrans, a 136 mile cross country mountain bike challenge from Whitehaven to Sunderland, backed up by Support Driver, Neil Priestley. Another fantastic but tiring event, not without incidence as Mark ended up in A&E!

We completed in 2 days, on mountain bikes, Day 1 will be 67.5 miles from Whitehaven to Great Salkeld, taking in Whinlatter Pass, and day 2 to Sunderland, taking in England's highest café, Hartside at 1,903ft above sea level, a distance on the day of 77.9 miles (with optional extended routes).

We also rode the alternative 'Old Coach Road' out of Keswick, a 2-satge climb of almost 1,500ft, testing times, adding to the official distance.

We undertook these events to raise money in memory of 6 year old Darcy Jo Burke, a little girl from Darfield, Barnsley, who sadly lost her fight against a brain tumour at Easter this year.

The section below is written by Darcy's family:

On the 13th Of April 2013, Darcy Jo was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour, namely a Diffuse Pontine Intrisnsic Glioma (DPIG). Darcy was a typical young girl, who loved the colour purple, JLS, One Direction, as well as tormenting her little sister Tilly. She also loved reading, word searches, maths and being outside.

The type of tumour Darcy was diagnosed with grows in the stem of the brain and is very aggressive. Less than 10% of DIPG children will live longer than 18 months from diagnosis. Survival is even more rare. We were offered a one-time-only course of Radiotherapy, along with a mild dose of Chemotherapy, which wouldn’t cure the tumour, but give us a few extra months.

We decide to set up a Facebook page to keep family and friends informed of Darcy’s Journey, to share stories and the experiences we had with Darcy, and also to fundraise for us as a family to make some special memories. We called this Darcys Days. (https://www.facebook.com/darcysdaysbarnsley/timeline

Different fundraising events took place over the summer which included sponsored walks, sky dives, football matches, raffles and auctions. From the money raised Darcy, her mum and dad and her brothers and sisters, Jade, Ben, Max and Tilly and other family members were able to enjoy making memories going to Yorkshire Wildlife Park, Lego Land, Dirt Buggy Racing, West Midlands Safari Park and many others. Darcy also really enjoyed Disneyland Paris, visiting Centre Parks and Meeting JLS.

In August 2013 Darcy had an MRI to see how effective the Radiotherapy and Chemotherapy had been and the results were that the tumour had stopped growing and was now sleeping. That begun to change shortly after Christmas when Darcys headaches returned. In February 2014, after another MRI, we got the dreadful news that the tumour had woken and was growing. From this point, things went downhill quite rapidly, with a new symptom every week, from clumsiness, slurred speech, noise sensitivity and slight paralysis in the left side.

We began to access Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospice at Sheffield for a few hours every few weeks. We used this time to go and relax as a family, play, get messy and have some fun.

A year to the date, 13th of April 2014, Darcy was taken into Sheffield Childrens Hospital after having a few really bad days. It was at this point we were asked if we want to take Darcy to Bluebell Wood due to her pain management instead of keeping her in the hospital. We accepted this and went to Bluebell Wood the following day. It was here we begun her End of Life Pathway. Darcy passed away just after Midnight on the 22nd April, pain free and peacefully, surround by her family.

We can’t put into words how hard this journey has been, but Bluebell Wood Childrens Hospital made it a little bit easier. The services, care and support they offer each child and their family is amazing, whether it’s on the path we are on, or respite. We went into Bluebell Wood with an End Of Life Pathway for Darcy which meant that her pain would be managed and they would help us with as little or as much as we needed them too while Darcy was still alive, and also after her death. After Darcy had passed away, we were able to stay at the hospice as a family, and were still able to spend time with Darcy. The staff are amazing and didn’t treat us or Darcy any differently, still going in to see her afterwards, being a shoulder for us to cry on or giving us space if we need it.

This place is truly amazing with wonderful resources to meet the needs of each individual child and their family, and also wonderful staff team who were experienced and knowledgeable. They deserve and need every penny that people can donate to keep them going, whether its cash donations for fundraising events, volunteering hours to help, or even taking unwanted items into their Charity Shops. It costs around £3million to keep the hospice open and they only receive around 8% government funding, the rest they have to get from fundraising and donations. We never thought we would need this place, but we really did. It is an amazing place under the worst circumstances!

In memory of Darcy a team of us are undertaking 2 events over the year to raise money for the hospice.

Please if you can support the hospice with a donation, bric-a-brac, or even your time it would be massively welcomed.

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