As I’m sure most of you are aware, the past 2 years have been a bit of a rollercoaster for me, spending the majority of that time in and out of hospital fighting a rather unpleasant battle. In November 2014 I was admitted into the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast completely oblivious to the fact that I would be spending a bit more time there than I would have hoped. After many scratches of the head and more tests than you can possibly imagine, my amazing consultant, Dr Hedderwick dug deeper and started looking into the whole genetic side of things. I was flown over to the Royal Free Hospital in London where I was diagnosed with a non specific periodic fever syndrome, an incredibly rare and incurable genetic disorder which only affects 1 in 10 million people.

The reason why I’m writing this is because I will be running the full 2017 Virgin Money London Marathon for Genetic Disorders UK- a charity quite clearly very close to my heart. I know running the marathon won’t find me a cure but it will raise awareness, and most importantly money for research of course, and who’s to say it won’t find a cure for people with similar disorders in the future.

I cannot put into words how thankful I am for the support from my family, friends and medical teams throughout this incredibly surreal journey. Without you all I wouldn’t be here doing what I’m doing today. Any donation big or small would mean the world to me.

London baby, I’m coming for ya!! #teamgene