Karl and I have come together and had the privilege of being given a space at the London Marathon on the 21st April 2024.

We both wanted to do this and raise money for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. This charity is special as it helps so many children and so many other people have had interactions with this amazing place. That is why it is the best Children's Hospital in the world.

They are the UK’s largest dedicated charitable funder of child health, but they urgently need more support to help researchers find more life-saving cures. 

We are personally running on behalf of Ryan Bishop and to assist his fundraising efforts.

Karl has kindly stepped up to the plate to run and help me raise money for this great charity. Karl is a family friend and has been Ryan’s football coach for the past 9 years. He has seen the impacts that both the illness and Great Ormond Street have had on Ryan.

Although a retired professional footballer, Karl is stepping well outside of his comfort zone to take on his 1st ever marathon. He will naturally want to push himself hard (such is his competitive nature), but is fully aware of the commitment it requires which will be no easy feat with his many other commitments.

RYAN’S STORY:

Ryan was s a 12-year-old boy who was thriving in life and a particularly talented sportsman, competing at a high level, however, in September 2021, he started suffering with anxiety and developed obsessive compulsive disorder.

Ryan starting to over exercise and very quickly developed anorexia nervosa and was hospitalised on several occasions, including twice to High Dependency Ward. Amidst all this, he was also diagnosed with autism which had been unaware of his hole life and simply masked the impacts that this had on his life.

Over the following year, Ryan slowly declined in both his physical and mental health and it has become clear that the mental health services for children is not sufficiently funded or set up to deal with children who have co-morbid diagnosis.

Fortunately, along this journey Ryan has been helped by a number of people, including Great Ormond Street Hospital where he was a in patient for 8 months trying to recover. 

Ryan believes that had he not been given the help from GOSH, he may not have survived, and therefore wants to organise and raise money so that more children can receive their support and intervention at an early stage, and never have to go through what he or his family have had too. 

Ryan still continues to make a full recovery but is optimistic about the future.