In 2025, Dhara will be taking on her biggest challenge yet by running the London Marathon. To support her with this challenge, Hina (her mum) will be helping to fundraise through this and another fundraising event - a charity raffle with all donations and fund going to the Scoliosis Research Foundation.

___________________________________________________________

As some of you know, I slipped my disc two years ago and the idea of running a marathon at that point became totally unachievable as I was struggling to even walk without pain. Over the last year, I have put in the work to come back stronger than before and to celebrate that, I wanted to hit this milestone by raising money for a charity that was meaningful to me and close to my heart.

When my sister was 11 (I was 13), she was diagnosed with Scoliosis. As she was just about to undergo her growth spurt, the doctors were worried that this would really affect her in the long term. For the next month, she was off school and undergoing intensive physiotherapy all day, 6 days a week. This was really hard for her and so hard for me to see, especially at such a young age and not knowing what Scoliosis is. Its hard at that age to be pulled away from all your friends and see the long term benefits. After this, she had to work 45-60 mins of physiotherapy into her daily routine (usually before school) which causes a lot of stress for her and my parents. However, closely monitoring the curvature of her spine over the next couple of years, she managed to avoid surgery which was a huge relief for my parents. It's definitely something that she could have been insecure about growing up and even now but I'm so proud of her for embracing it and not letting that stop her reach any of her goals. Now, she is a 4th year medical student and not once has she let it stop her from doing everything she wanted to.

Raising money for this cause is so important for us to further develop the research and support those with Scoliosis. Having seen the effects of this it's not something anyone should have to go through. Scoliosis Support and Research is a charity that helps support people with scoliosis and their families. This includes providing advice, support, and information to people affected by scoliosis and their families and raise awareness of scoliosis.

We want other people to be able to get the support they need, whether that is advice on how to deal with physical and emotional pain caused by this condition or just a support system to take life head on with this life-long condition.

Any donations, no matter how small, will be greatly appreciated :)

Dhara and Hina x