My name is Aoife Corcoran and I am a 3rd year UCD Physiotherapy student. I have just completed 5 weeks of clinical placement in the Haematology and Oncology department in Crumlin Children's Hospital. The past few weeks have been a real eye-opening experience. Many of the children I met and worked with on St. John's ward have been diagnosed with different types of cancer such as Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Burkitt's Lymphoma, Osteosarcoma (bone tumour), Medulloblastoma (brain tumour) and other conditions like Hurler syndrome and Fanconi Anaemia. For these children and their families, this means months of intensive chemotherapy, often radiation therapy, and in some cases surgery or bone marrow transplants, all of which can potentially have extreme side-effects on these children's little bodies.

This gruelling treatment regime, and the possible associated complications, can mean extremely long hospital stays for the children and their parents. A lot of the children that I met have spent the majority of their lives in hospital. However, while these children are going through one of the worst experiences imaginable, they still manage to be resilient, courageous and keep smiling.

The staff on St. John's ward are also incredibly devoted to their patients. The care and attention they give each and every child is of the highest standards. One event which takes place every week, "Boogie Tuesday", involves all the staff members on the ward joining together to dance with the children and parents. It was clear to me that the children really enjoyed this fun interruption in their day and maybe for a while it also helped them to forget their worries and discomforts.

I was extremely touched by the strength and bravery of both the children and their parents on St. John's ward. For this reason, I have decided to raise much needed funds for this Haematology/Oncology ward in Crumlin Children's Hospital. I will be running 150km from October 31st till December 11th (#30RunsOfChristmas). All sponsorship or donations would be greatly appreciated. 

Crumlin Children's Hospital (www.cmrf.org) is one of the great beneficiaries of National Christmas Jumper Day which is on December 11th, and so I am asking you to donate now and join me in wearing a Christmas jumper on this day, and indeed if you would like to walk or run the last 5km with me on December 11th, either socially distanced, virtually or across all parts of the country that would be wonderful too! Let's give 2020 and COVID a run for its money and raise as much as we can for Crumlin Children's Hospital! 

Aoife