On 22nd April 2018 James Montgomery is running the Virgin Money London Marathon 2018 through the city of London.

This is to raise money for The Little Jimmy Brighter Future Fund, a fund within the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, established to buy life-support equipment in memory of James Shaw. 

Little Jimmy was the son of Monty's close friends Pete and Emily Shaw, and Godson to Monty and his wife Marieke, and who died at GOSH aged just 5.5 weeks. 

In order to prepare for his first marathon, and having just completed the Royal Parks Half Marathon 2017 for the same cause, Monty will be participating in a series of races, including:

* Sri Chinmoy 10K Series "Grizzly Bear 10" on Sunday 26 November 2017

* GOSH London Santa Dash 10km on Sunday 3 December 2017 (together with his family)

* 100 Mile December 2017 Challenge, Race at your Pace

* Bath Half Marathon 21km on Sunday 4 March 2018... cancelled!

* Walkie-talkie Tower Climb March 2018

Monty will be supported in his fundraising efforts by his wife Marieke, sister Sarah and brother-in-law Matt, who also ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon to raise money for GOSH. You can donate here and all donations big and small are extremely appreciated!

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Here's a bit more about Little Jimmy by his mummy, Emily Shaw:

"James William Shaw was born on 21st September 2016, followed three minutes later by his sister Isabel. Both twins were thriving at home, our 18-month old Alexa was just beginning to understand that she was an older sister and my husband, Pete, and I were excitedly looking to the future with as a family of five. Then, at just 5.5 weeks old Jimmy became suddenly, unexpectedly and devastatingly unwell with presumed sepsis and a complicating blood clot to the bowel. Despite the determined efforts of our local hospital, the Children's Acute Transfer Service (CATS) and ultimately Great Ormond Street Hospital Intensive Care Unit, Jimmy could not be saved. He died in our arms two days after becoming unwell, covered in the kisses of his mummy and daddy, who told him how loved he was. It is beyond words how traumatised we were left by seeing Jimmy so desperately sick and how bereft his death left us, our hearts were truly broken. 

Then, three weeks after Jimmy died, and just two days after we had buried him, his twin sister Izzy too became unwell with an unrelated condition, we were just seemingly that unlucky. Within 24 hours Izzy was undergoing emergency, life-or-death surgery at Great Ormond Street. We genuinely believed we were going to lose a second child that day. Thankfully Izzy's surgery was successful and she recovered.

I am a hospital doctor and I can hand-on-heart honestly say that in my 11 years experience as a clinician I have never seen such a unanimous, continuous and determined effort and bloody-minded resolve to save a life as with Jimmy. The medical staff gave blood, sweat and tears to save my little boy, he received the best possible care in the world, by the most humane doctors and nurses I have ever met and for that I am beholden to them. Beyond the world-class care both he and Izzy received at GOSH, our family received unbounded care and kindness, practical support (such as neighbouring accommodation) and pastoral support that continues to this day (including bereavement counselling). GOSH gave us our very best hope of saving Jimmy, saved the life of Izzy and took extremely delicate and humane care of us parents in the process.

Very soon after these experiences we became resolved on trying to repay some of our perceived incalculable debt to GOSH, nurture something positive out of such a tragic loss and continue to strive to keep Jimmy’s memory alive. We are pulling together an army of impossibly loyal family and friends to join us in fundraising a hugely ambitious amount of money specifically in Jimmy’s name, as his legacy. We are aiming to raise £107,649 to buy two much needed, new ventilators for the CATS retrieval ambulances. Please donate what you can, share our story and let us know if you too would like to fundraise in Jimmy's name by emailing us on littlejimmybrighterfuturefund@gmail.com.

Please follow us and share our links on these mediums: 

Facebook: @littlejimmybrighterfuturefund

Twitter: @littlejimmybff Instagram @littlejimmybff

Love and gratitude from Emily, Pete, Lexy and Izzy Shaw xx"

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[Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.]

Thanks for reading & for your support!


Monty x