Having smashed the 7.5 million target, helping to fund Premier Inn Clinical Building which officially opened in January 2018, Premier Inn and Restaurants are now fundraising towards a ground-breaking new facility at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), designed to transform the hospital experience for children with sight and hearing impairments. In this event, Rikki Quinlan, will lead a team of challengers on this endurance event from Land’s End to GOSH, cycling over 500km, swimming a 3km stretch of the River Thames and running a Marathon in just FOUR days.

You’ll be supporting children like Josh. At just four weeks old, Josh was diagnosed with Norrie disease, a rare, generic disorder, affecting the eye, that almost leads to blindness. Now Josh visits GOSH every few months for regular check-ups.

Josh’s mum Wendy shares their experience with the disease:  “We realised something was wrong when, just days after Josh home, he still wouldn’t open his eyes. After several trips to A&E, we were told ‘Your son has bilateral detachment – he is blind.’

It was a very worrying time. We were still trying to celebrate the birth of our new beautiful baby boy, whilst also trying to shield his sister Chloe from the stress.

Norrie disease is so rare it only affects roughly 20 people in the UK. It presents differently in each child, so we weren’t sure what we were up against. Alongside blindness, it can cause hearing loss, autism and cognitive impairment.

Being referred to GOSH was a memorable experience. Since then we’ve been coming to GOSH for seven years, with around five appointments a year. The brilliant part about being at GOSH is the group of specialists treating Josh. They have a great understanding of Norrie disease, share information and have really embraced the fact that Josh’s condition requires multi-disciplinary input.

One of the magic things about the hospital is that it’s not just about Josh, they’ve taken us on board as a family. They’re able to prepare us for the future. We have the support of a fantastic team, both at the hospital and at Josh’s school.

My hopes for Josh are that he’ll find his way in the world and continue to thrive and achieve whatever he wants. I hope that he’ll be proud of who he is.”

With your support, we can continue to help more children like Josh. With our sites working hard to raise a whopping £25,000, please donate to our page to help us reach our overall target of £30,000. Please give as much as you can to help this great cause.