As you know, one of my 3 year old twin daughters Charlotte suffers a few problems. She has cerebal palsy, a tethered spinal cord, hypermobility, hypotonia and speech and language disorder. She continues to require many trips to hospital and a daily regime of physiotherapy, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy.

 Fortunately, Charlotte was accepted for help by a charity called The PACE Centre, based in Buckinghamshire, that runs a “school” to give developmental assistance to physically disabled children who find learning everyday skills difficult as a result of their problems – www.thepacecentre.org.  

As a charity, PACE suffer the inevitable problems in raising funds.  In 2009 many people gave very generously to support Charlotte's efforts in The Children's Challenge, and she raised over £4,500, which was amazing and we and PACE were extremely grateful.

My challenge...

I want to do something to help, so I'm riding a cycling challenge to raise money for PACE, a climb of the famous Mont Ventoux, the "giant of Provence".  There are three roads to the summit of the mountain, and the challenge is to ride all three in one day.  It's not too far, about 135 kilometres (84 miles, and half of that is downhill!), but there's the small matter of 4,443 metres of "up" to go with the 135 kilometres of "along". Yet this physical challenge is nothing compared to the challenge that over 100 PACE children face everyday of the lives: their disabilities mean simple tasks are huge, even playing with toys. And let's be honest, at the end of the ride I can get off my bike and put my feet up, these children don't have any choice to opt-out of their daily struggle.   

So what can you do to help? Every year hundreds of volunteers like me need to raise money to keep this amazing service going, as PACE receives no statutory funding at all for this input. You can see for yourself just how effective your money will be - transforming childrens lives; watch the short video Children’s Challenge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jzs9V4VpQC4&feature=related. Every penny raised is used efficiently and is genuinely precious to all the children and families who benefit from PACE.

If you’ve met Charlotte you’ll know that she’s a bright little thing, but she has struggled with acquiring some of the basic skills we all take for granted.  Charlotte has been attending PACE for over 2 years now and the progress she has made with their support is truly amazing. The work that PACE do with Charlotte every week continues to be really important in helping her, and the other children they support, so anything you could give would be very much appreciated

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.