Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

My name is Josh Mitchell and I am Georges Dad. Those that know me will know running is not my forte however, I have decided to run the London Marathon to raise money for the King College Hospital Charity. The Charity are dedicated to supporting life-changing care for patients at Kings College Hospital (NHS). Any money raised will help transform patient care, pioneering research & much more. 

As you can all imagine when you're having a child you hope for them to be happy & healthy however, for us it didn't quite work out like that. When our little boy, George was born we noticed signs that his right eye wasn't developing as well as it should have but we all hoped that with time it would correct itself. 

We later found that his eye actually wasn't developing as it should have due to a rare birth defect called Craniosynostosis & that he would require surgery for this to be fixed. We were told that part of Georges skull had fused together too soon and that if left untreated it could lead to serious complications. Surgery would be a preventative measure in order to allow his brain room to grow and minimise any issues developmentally & cosmetically. 

When George was 1 year old we set off to Kings College Hospital and met the team who would be looking after our little family. George had to endure 8 hours of skull reconstruction surgery and stayed in hospital for 5 days as well as a period of time at home for recovery. 

The surgery was successful but as you can see from the photos we faced challenges on an hourly/ daily basis from his breathing deteriorating, the morphine not being enough to keep him comfortable and his head becoming very swollen. As parents it was so difficult to watch our beautiful little boy go through this. Every single member of the team that looked after George were incredible and I cannot thank them enough for everything they did for George and our family. 

I am doing this Marathon, to give back to all of the staff that work at Kings College Hospital not just those who supported and made a difference to our lives, but to those who do amazing work every single day. Hopefully this will be able to help other families or individuals who may have to go through a similar experience to us in the future. 

Thanks 

Josh

(And George & Chloe)