Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Follow my training journey here: https://www.strava.com/athletes/ffitzy 

Our Team Page here:  https://www.justgiving.com/team/patriciastriathlon 

My Nan has always been the centre of our family, our meeting point, our feeding point (she was definitely a feeder), our carer and a source of many laughs. Over recent years she fell ill with Alzheimers but she battled on. She would still feed us endless biscuits and hammy sandwiches, but sometimes put 10 sugars in your tea instead of two. She was still the same amazing woman she had always been and cared more about everyone else's health and well being than her own. She would never fail to make you laugh, be it chugging on a bottle of Malibu, having thought it was juice, she soon realised. To trying to scare some kids away from my grandparents Country and Western club by using a Play Station Portable to "Phone" the police.

At the very start of December I received a phone call whilst on detachment, I was told my Nan had gone into hospital and it did not look good. I was rushed home and was told the devastating news. She had Cancer of many varieties and it was very late stage. She was at a point where she wouldn't respond to us very often but would occasionally open her eyes and say your name which meant the world to many of us. 

This was when our family pulled together, she'd cared for us all these years and now it was our time to return that favour. 24/7 there was someone sat with her from our family, talking to her and holding her hand. Over the coming days she was moved to a quieter ward and then her own room in Warwick Hospital. This made us all very happy but the hospital and the NHS are extremely short staffed and although I cannot fault their effort, there was simply not enough staff to run the ward. Some important things, like pain relief, would take hours to arrive after asking. So when a family member, along with the hospital staff, pushed and secured a place in a Marie Curie Hospice, my Nan was moved.

As soon as she arrived at the Hospice, the staff had a welcome sign on the door, they made her comfortable in her new space and showed us around. The facility was absolutely fantastic. It put all of our minds at rest straight away. The staff had time for any questions and supported our family who were staying each night with beds and blankets and so on. Any medication changes or help turning her was very quickly answered and sorted. The room was beautiful, modern, large, a giant en suite bathroom and the gardens were stunning. The cafe was fantastic and far too cheap! There was a bird feeder right outside the door with Blue Tits, Robins and more. They brought a real Christmas tree for outside the patio door and had Santa and a therapy dog come and visit. There was not one thing I would change about that place and I couldn't thank the staff at Marie Curie Solihull enough. It was Christmas Eve 2022 that my Nan finally took her last few breaths with all of us holding her hands. It sounds odd but it was a very special moment for us all to be able to know she was so comfortable there and that we were all there with her.

The care Marie Curie provided did not stop there though, it's the care post bereavement that matters too. They support families who have suffered from bereavements with things such as the Shed Club at Solihull that invites Widowers every week to meet like minded people. There's even a Marie Curie hotline for those who are suffering. 

I can't stress how amazing I think this charity is and when we were told that to run the building we were in costs them £11,000 a day, we wanted to try and raise just 10% of a days funding each, amounting to £2200 and if we reach that, maybe we'll shoot to cover a full day. My Uncle and I decided on a challenge to push ourselves to do an Olympic level triathlon. Being our first, this will be a giant challenge and training has already begun. We will be open water swimming 1500m, cycling 44 kilometres and then running 10 kilometres with my personal goal of completing all of this within 3 hours 15 minutes.

If anyone wishes to join me and my uncle in doing this triathlon, please message me and I will drop you a link. 

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