Hearing that someone close to you has suffered a brain bleed has got to be one of the scariest phone calls imaginable. Late last year my girlfriends sister (Gee) endured a Posterior fossa haemorrhage secondary to a brain arteriovenous malformation (AVM). Becoming the tight knit team we have through the years, it felt right to pull together once more to help raise awareness.

An AVM is a tangle of abnormal blood vessels connecting arteries and veins in the brain. In an AVM, there are no capillaries, so blood does not slow down, and it does not get to deliver oxygen and nutrients to the body's tissues. Instead, blood that is flowing very fast (high flow) goes directly from an artery to a vein. AVM's usually develop before birth, effecting less than 1 percent of the population. They are commonly found after a brain scan for another health issue, unfortunately Georgina's AVM was found after the blood vessels had ruptured and caused bleeding in the brain (hemorrhage).

"Brain injury can challenge every aspect of your life, Walking, talking, thinking and feeling, the losses can be severe and permanent. It can mean losing both the life you once lived and the person you once were." It is something that we never believe could happen to ourselves or our loved ones but every year around 350,000 people are admitted to hospital with an acquired brain injury. That's one every 90 seconds.

In order to raise awareness Em, Rich and Myself are running the Shakespeare Half Marathon in Stratford upon Avon on the 24th of April for the charity Headway , (Whilst Gee and Ness sit and watch eating cake), a charity that works to improve life after brain injury by providing vital support. The charity also aims to improve the support and resources made available to people affected by brain injury and works to raise awareness of brain injury and the devastating effects it can have.

Every donation, no matter how big or small would be amazing!

Headway: https://www.headway.org.uk/