This year I was 'lucky' enough to win a place in to the London Marathon. It's a massive challenge but I wanted to take the opportunity to try and raise some money to help a very local cause and help to make a difference to the lives of some very special children.

Redbridge School is only 5 minutes away from my house but I have only fairly recently become aware of the school and what they do. The school is for children with varying additional needs that require specialist facilities.

I got the chance to visit the school in December after we helped to raise some money for them in work and I got to meet a lot of the children and see their facilities. I learned all about their plans and brilliant ideas to improve their resources for children with the most severe difficulties but they need a lot of help due to a lack of funding. 

I thought the best way to explain why I want to fundraise for Redbridge would be to hear from someone who would benefit from any donations. Holly is the daughter of a friend of mine Hayley. She attends Redbridge and Holly's picture in her Redbridge uniform is on my page. This is her story:

"Hi Everyone,

My name is Holly I'm 15 years old and I go to an amazing school called Redbridge High.

We were very lucky recently to move to a brand new school that was purpose built to meet all the needs of the children that go there and we couldn't be happier.

There is a group of children in my school just like myself who rely on their wheelchairs to get everywhere which makes our life a little bit more difficult than everyone else's to be able to take part in fun activities that other children our age do.

This is why we are so grateful and pleased that you are considering to help us in our big fundraising drive to make sure that EVERY child in our school is able to play together without exception.

Our dream is to have a special area on the playground that has a shelter and a sensory garden around it as some of us are on so much medication that our skin becomes paper thin and we need the protection in all weathers from a suitable area.

The sensory garden would be a heaven for all the children in our school a lot of children including myself have severe visual impairment so we rely on our other senses of touch and smell to really enjoy life. To be able to experience a different environment like a sensory garden would be a dream come true for us all.

And then the final part of our dream would be to have a wheelchair swing fitted in our playground, at the moment at playtimes I sit and observe all the other children using lots of fun equipment like swings but unfortunately because of my disability I'm unable to play alongside them.
With your help I would really love to be able to go out at play time and have a swing that I could go on and play with my friends, there are lots of special children like me in my school and we just wanted to say from the bottom of our hearts thank you so so much for everything that you are doing to help make our dreams come true.

Lots of love
Holly xxx"

I would truly appreciate if you could please give your support in anyway you can and help make a difference for the children of Redbridge.

Thank You.