I'll be running my first marathon at the start of October to raise much needed funds for The Positivitree Charity. 

This charity was started after our eldest Son Jack relapsed and began treatment for the second time for a rare cancer called Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis. Luckily for us, Jack currently has "No active disease" and will start the next stage of his school career this September in high school.  Whilst fully immersed in the hospital system myself and Rachel noticed there was excellent support and care for the children but it seemed to lack the structure and resources to support the families, parents and carers, particularly around their mental health and wellbeing while raising their children who were going through the unthinkable.  We decided we wanted to use our experience going through this as well as the skills we had developed in our professional lives to support families like us.

Now in it’s 4th year and in no small part down to the amazing effort of Rachel and the dedicated team of volunteers who run a variety of groups, activities and 1-1 peer support sessions each week.  

The Positivitree strategy is to use coaching and mentoring models as well as that all important lived experience to enable parents and carers to navigate their lives raising children with additional needs. The charity has developed a strong local reputation and partners with local and national community organisations as well as statutory services to service the local parent-carer community.

Any money raised will go towards the next big project to re-purpose a local library which was at risk of closure due to council cut backs.  The charity will turn the library in to a wellbeing hub for local families raising children (from birth to adulthood) with special needs and disabilities and plans to use this opportunity to pilot an idea that could be rolled out around the country.

Thanks for reading and any support you can give will be very much appreciated.