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My daughter, Stella, is almost 17 now, and the youngest of my four children. (To give the others a shoutout: James 20, Daisy 19, George 18.) Stella has been a patient at St. Mary’s Hospital since shortly after she was born. She has many complex medical needs, but due to her inability to make her own blood she was transfusion dependent until her bone marrow transplant at the age of 8. The transplant itself, many of her 125 blood transfusions and several operations were all carried out at St. Mary’s Hospital. On one occasion, following an operation on a Hickman line, she had to be transferred to the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU). I had to leave her to go back to school that evening to play for the girls in a concert. I remember being concerned about her, but not overly worried, as I knew I was leaving her in the best possible care. The doctors, nurses and all the staff in PICU were simply outstanding!

We first met Professor Parviz Habibi quite early on in our time at St. Mary’s. In addition to looking after Stella’s lungs, Profesor Habibi is the man responsible for setting up the PICU at St. Mary’s in 1992; a unit that has saved thousands of children’s lives over the years. His wife is responsible for coming up with the rather cool charity name ‘COSMIC’ (Children Of St. Mary’s Intensive Care), a charity that raises money for the unit, children and their families that find themselves in need of it. 

Parviz is also a swimmer, and over the years I have heard tales of his solo swims and leading various teams of swimmers across the English Channel, sometimes there and back! Our relay channel swim will probably be a 4 to 6 person team. Each person in the team swims for an hour before being replaced by the next one. This process repeats until we reach France. It’s likely that I will have to swim for 3, possibly 4 hours in total in the sea!

2020 is my year to get involved and give back to a hospital that has given me and my family so much for so many years. Please sponsor me and donate to this very deserving charity. Also, I celebrate my 50th birthday at around the time of the swim in August, so your donation would be a great present!

Thank you so much!

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