I will be running the London Marathon on 23 April 2017 in memory of our beautiful and brave little girl, Chloe, and in recognition of all the fantastic doctors, nurses and other professionals who took care of Chloe at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Chloe was born on 22 February 2012, an apparently normal and healthy little girl, but at the age of only 11 weeks Chloe suffered a sudden and massive respiratory collapse. Whilst Chloe survived this initial collapse thanks to life-saving treatment at UCLH and, subsequently, Great Ormond Street Hospital, she would never again breathe unassisted and would not come home again. Chloe passed away at 9.15am on 22 November 2012, on her nine-month birthday.

With hindsight, Chloe never stood a chance. Whilst Chloe was alive, the doctors struggled to find a diagnosis for her illness, and it was only after Chloe passed away that the GOSH doctors were able to diagnose an extremely rare and incurable lung condition. During those weeks and months at GOSH, however, there was always hope that Chloe would get better and would some day return home. Chloe fought for her life every day that she was in hospital, suffering multiple crashes back into intensive care, surgery and daily treatment of some kind. Whilst often in pain or discomfort (her doctors said, given her respiratory condition, that simply breathing was the equivalent of running a marathon every day), Chloe enchanted so many with her glowing smiles and dogged bravery. Chloe's incredible spirit serves as a true inspiration, and she is missed terribly.

The Chloe Mansfield Fund was set up to keep Chloe’s spirit alive and with the express aim to help improve the lives and prospects of children who, like Chloe, are in hospital and not at home. Our initial target to raise £235,000, to build a children’s playroom in the new Respiratory ward at GOSH, has been met with the incredible generosity of so many. In addition, The Chloe Mansfield Fund has supported a selective number of smaller funding projects for the children of GOSH and their families, including most recently the funding of window art work in the Paediatric and Neo-natal Intensive Care Units, where Chloe spent much of her time whilst in hospital.

But there is always more to do. Our next target is to raise between £150,000 and £200,000 to help fund potentially ground-breaking, lung bio-engineering research at GOSH. The focus of this research will be on discovering a way to improve the lifelong chance of success of lung transplantation for children, including very small babies, through the creation of an engineered, decellularised lung. This technology, to the extent successfully developed, will save the lives and fundamentally change the long term prospects for children who suffer from severe congenital lung conditions, like Chloe.

We hope that you agree that this is a worthy and potentially momentous cause, and thank you for your continued generosity and support. 

Will, Thuy, Sophie, Chloe, Harry and Charlie