10 years ago my son, William, had a bowel transplant at Birmingham Children's Hospital. The transplant gave him life but it's not always a straight forward life after such a transplant. In the last 10 years, Wills has been back to Birmingham countless times with infection, incidences of rejection and other transplant complications. In 2014, sadly his transplanted bowel failed and he faced a second, multi-organ transplant. This came with even more complications. In the last 10 years Birmingham has become our home from home, often spending months there. 

We have spent four Christmasses, two of William's birthdays, three of his sisters' birthdays, four New Years... and, as they should be, many of those have been the times of our lives thanks to Ronald McDonald House giving us a wonderful place for myself and the girls to stay. Many of our happiest family memories are cooking meals there, binge watching Downton Abbey while Wills sleeps on the ward, Christmas time sharing with the staff and other families... We know that this isn't possible without the house as it wasn't there when Wills had his first transplant and it was so much harder having to sleep on the ward with no place for the girls, meaning we were split at the time we needed each other the most. Since the house was available to us, we've been able to stay together, support each other and create happy memories in the hardest of times. 

Wills and I spent five weeks there at the start of the summer. The girls have grown up now but the house still gives me a place to leave the ward each night to eat proper food, have a bath, relax, work, read, watch TV, listen to music and have my own little bit of space and home to recharge my batteries ready to face the next, often very worrying and exhausting,  day at the hospital.

It costs £25 per night to host a family at Ronald McDonald House. We have had hundreds of these nights over the years. I would like to raise at least £2500 to give 100 nights back as part of the celebration of William's 10 years of life with his family. 

Ronald McDonald House Charities provides free 'home away from home' accommodation at specialist children's hospitals across the UK, enabling families to stay close to their child and maintain a degree of normal family life. They rely solely on charitable donations and fundraising.