The Story

At 4 years old, I was rushed to Great Ormond Street Hospital for a complicated laryngotracheal reconstruction. It saved my life.

As a child, I was unable to breathe during common illnesses like colds. I spent portions of my life on strong drugs to enlarge my throat and prevent asphyxiation. For my parents, this was torture. Sleepless nights when I had a cough, waiting for a gentle rasp of their child silently choking. The panicked rush to administer the life-saving oxygen and adrenaline. Constant ambulance call-outs, praying I'd stay alive till they arrived.

One night, the paramedics rushed up the stairs to find my parents mid-procedure, treating me as I suffocated during a croup attack. I was admitted at a local hospital, as usual. But for the first time ever, it happened twice in one night. In the ward, onlooking doctors and nurses stood shocked. Not just by the gruesome scene of my mum pinning my writhing body down while my dad provided oxygen and adrenaline, but also by the efficiency with which my parents moved, as if they had done it hundreds of times. Staff realised something was seriously wrong. That same evening, I was referred to Great Ormond Street.

I spent several weeks inside, and 23 years later, half-memories still linger. I remember the tubes down my throat, restricting my speech. I remember the boy in the adjacent bed crying in anguish pulling his tubes out every night, to the nurses' continual horror. I remember my grandmother visiting, realising my making the scuba diver's OK-gesture meant I needed the toilet -- a problem none had been able to solve! I remember purple-dark lonely nights.

I bear the scars of the operation to this day. It involved a cartilage graft being taken from my chest (scar one: across my right breast) and inserted into my throat to widen the airway (scar two: across my neck). They compliment the biggest scar I have, across my stomach: I was born with duodenal atresia. It was a great success. I live to tell the tale.

The Half Marathon

I'm delighted to be supporting Great Ormond Street Hospital as a runner at the London Landmarks Half Marathon on April 6th 2025.

After the life-saving treatment I received from the incredible staff at Great Ormond Street, it's an honour to support their charitable cause. Any financial support you can provide would be tremendously appreciated.