• About Make-A-Wish

Make-A-Wish UK grant magical wishes to enrich the lives of children and young people fighting life-threatening conditions. Granting their wish provides seriously ill children with hope for the future, strength to cope and resilience to fight their condition. They're given quality time away from the daily realities of living with their condition and given the chance to make magical memories they can treasure forever,  whatever their future may hold. We want to transform the lives of 1,000 children this year by granting their One True Wish!

As somebody who has spent a lot of their childhood in-and-out of the hospital because of a heart condition, I understand how much of a positive impact Make-A-Wish can have.

• Time to get (a bit) personal...

The heart has 4 valves; the mitral, tricuspid, aortic & pulmonic. The valves work together to pump blood efficiently around the body. I was born with a faulty mitral heart valve and for more than half of my childhood, I was unable to eat a full meal, walk far, or even run. My heart wasn't pumping blood around my body properly. When I was 7, I went through long but life-changing operations which fixed my heart. I remember waking up after one of the operations to the smell of potato waffle faces and immediately digging into an entire meal!! 

It feels like I've been given a completely new life and I'm not here to waste it. If I've learnt anything from my childhood, it's that life can be short. Subconsciously, I pursued my passions and strived to be independent. I signed up for a paper-round and went busking in town with my violin. After saving up some money, I launched a YouTube Channel with the hope to find friends online who had similar interests to me. Little did I know, this was the beginning of my career.

Fast forward several years, my new-found passion has completely taken over my life; spending most of my time making videos. When I turned 22, my brother asked me to run a 10km event with him and I couldn't turn it down - a new challenge was in my sight and I didn't want to waste it! By signing up, it meant I HAD to train because the thought of failing was not an option for me. Before training, I hadn't run even 1km at once, I didn't know if I could... if my condition allowed me to.

By training for the 10km event, I realised my body was more capable than what I thought - so we trained for and participated in a 15km event, then a half marathon event... now the London Marathon 2020 (42km). I'm now running 20-30km a week!! If I could go back in time and tell myself that I would be participating in the London Marathon when I began running, I would've laughed in disbelief! In fact, I now enjoy running so much that I look forward to planning my next big run.

• Why do I enjoy running? Two reasons...

Make-A-Wish has provided me with a running shirt to wear on the big day. On the back of my shirt are 18, individual red stars. I've decided that the Top 18 Donators will each have their name written in their own star to show off their support during the run! Everyone else who doesn't make it into the Top 18 will still have their name written on the shirt somewhere, even if you donate $1 :) 

After the Marathon, I will post a photo of the back of my shirt on my Instagram Page & feature it in a YouTube Video - forever treasuring the memory with my audience, which you were a part of!

Any donation, big or small, means a massive amount to me & I won't forget your support! The team behind the Make-A-Wish Foundation are incredible and it's an honour to be able to work with them!

In 2019, Make-A-Wish granted 1,200 wishes to children & young people across the globe, giving each individual person a moment to treasure. None of this would've been possible without donations. By reaching our goal of £2,000, we will increase that number of wishes and hopefully, we will provide somebody with a moment magical enough to keep them fighting on! 

Your support will really make a difference.

The London Marathon is a challenging event to participate in and your help will motivate me massively. If you donate to my page, I won't forget. Thank you for reading!

Donations made to my page will be sent directly to the charity in a fast and secure way. It's efficient, saves time and cuts costs for the charity. Let's do this!