Hi Everyone.

My name is Sophie Foster and on the 14^th
June 2018 I'm aiming to complete The Lyke Wake Walk. This is
a challenging linear walk of 40 miles with 5000 feet of ascent, starting from Osmotherly in the West, crossing the North York Moors and finishing at Ravenscar in the East. A walk that has to be completed within 24 hours, my aim is 20 hours or less, fingers crossed.

My reason for undertaking this challenge is in aid of the Children’s Heart Unit Fund (CHUF), a charity which I hold dear to my heart and as a transplantee at 15 months old I owe my life to those dedicated professionals, from Surgeons, Doctors, Nurses & supporting members of staff within The Freeman Hospital. They are devoted to giving and maintaining the lives of extremely sick & dying children with heart conditions.

CHUF is based at The Children’s Heart Unit at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, a charity whose sole mission, is to provide these children and young people with lifelong support, so they can live their lives and achieve their dreams without discrimination.

Being a major organ that pumps life around your body and allowing that body to actively function, the symbolic consequences of a heart condition diagnosis will be utter devastation for patients and family
alike. The impact on both is completely life changing, from uncertainty and fear about the future, to total life changing procedures that will impact both patient and family for the rest of their lives, when most ordinary children spend time together at home, creating and developing those precious moments that make childhood memories, those others will be spending a large percentage of time in the Freeman Hospital.

This is what CHUF recognises and prides itself on. Whilst it understands that the NHS provides expert medical and surgical care, it knows that one service alone can’t provide for the basic needs of a sick child and their family. Unfortunately neither can the NHS always ensure that the best possible equipment and facilities to provide up to date care is being used. This is where CHUF excels, by raising money through fundraising
events to provide urgently needed equipment as well as aftercare and supportive services. All of which make children and their families stay at the Freeman Hospital all the more bearable till one day they can play with their friends and go home.

By completing this fundraising challenge I hope to raise an ambitious target of £108,000. “Why such a specific number?” Well, based on the idea, that my transplanted heart will beat an estimated 90 bpm according to my walking pace times 60 minutes per hour and times 20 hours which I hope to complete the walk, and you have a baseline figure of a 108,000 beats. This would be in recognition of the constant maintenance carried out by that fantastic team that is the Freeman Hospital.

I owe my life and their constant support to this team and this is my way of ensuring that further funding is available for CHUF to continue their life saving operations and family support so that every child along with their family that enters the Freeman Hospital, probably, apprehensive of their future, will one day walk out with a smile and live a full life.