One day, when my son; James was very young he developed a cold.  This rapidly developed into a cough and the following day he couldn't breathe and was taken to hospital.

This was the start of a long, painful and difficult journey for James, me, his mum Lisa and our friends and family.

James was eventually diagnosed with a "Viral Induced Wheeze" which in laymans terms meant that every time he picked up an illness, his lungs would become blocked and he'd struggle to get his breath.  Calling it a wheeze makes it seem so simple and something you shouldn't worry about.  However, in James' case, on multiple occasions this wheeze resulted in ambulance trips to the Jenny Lind at Norfolk and Norwich Hospital because he couldn't breathe and was dying in front of us.

Through all our trips to the Hospital, we received the best possible support and all of the staff there are wonderful.  I want them to know that they saved James' life on multiple occasions and they deserve our support for the difficult job they do.

The last time we were waiting for treatment, Lisa and I decided we should give something back so we came up with the idea of a sponsored bike ride.  Because i'm so competitive this rapidly developed into something much larger and harder and the "5 Capitals" ride was born.  Along the way, my friend Mark decided he'd support us and he and I will be doing the ride together.  Mark is a veteran of charity events for good causes and is a sucker for punishment in the name of supporting his friends.  That's just the awesome guy he is.

So, on the 23rd of June, we will be leaving from the N&N Hospital in Norwich and starting the first leg of a 7 day ride.  The route will be taking us from Norwich to London, Paris, Luxembourg City, Brussels, Amsterdam and home.  All told it'll be 1000 miles in 7 days at a little over 140 miles every day.

We plan to have a support car follow us in case of breakdowns and to carry parts etc.  so if anyone would like to help us by volunteering their time, vehicles or equipment, that'd be much appreciated.  Please contact me on info@auwheels.com if there's any support you can give.

Our target is to raise at least £5000 on this journey, but we'd love to raise more!  For each of our targets, we are planning to buy much needed equipment for the Hospital so that parents and families can be spared the heartache and pain that serious medical conditions can cause.

Depending on how much we can raise, we'll purchase the following equipment:

£5,000 - Vapotherm Units.  These  provide support for
patients of all ages experiencing shortness of breath or trouble with
breathing.

£10,000 – 2 x Vapotherms and 2 x Baby Dopplers.  These are portable devices to measure blood pressure in babies which can be extremely difficult to measure and diagnose.

£15,000 – All the above plus - RSV and Flu enigma diagnostic machine. Used in CAU to test children and allows infectious children to be treated independently to avoid the spread of illness in the Hospital.

Please give as generously as possible as this is a great cause and the NNUH and NHS as a whole needs our support.

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