Our 11 year old niece Poppy has Rett Syndrome (a rare genetic neurodevelopmental disorder that primarily affects females, causing a progressive loss of motor skills, language, and coordination). She could feed herself & was progressing as normal until the age of 1 & a half when my sister noticed some regression & after many tests discovered she had Rett. She cannot walk or talk, needs to be fed & changed etc. Those with Rett Syndrome have been described as being trapped within their bodies. Poppy understands everything; she has a wicked sense of humour & she is the brightest little sunshine soul that lights up every room!

Last summer, at the age of 10, she had major hip surgery to stabilise her hip, & not long after she'd recovered, whilst at school, suffered a broken femur. The past year has been tough year for her, with a lot of discomfort & much time in bed recovering. She's currently still off school & building up her strength slowly. We also recently found out she'll need emergency spinal surgery within the next months.

So to demonstrate our love for Pops & to boost morale for her, as well as my sister & family (it can be heavy sometimes all the continual worries, surgeries, appointments, fighting to get her needs met, etc), & also to support all families of children with Rett, we are running the Manchester Marathon on 19th April 2026 to raise money for Reverse Rett.

Reverse Rett are a UK charity who are driving a cure & treatments. They are run by parents of children with Rett & the work & energy they put into fundraising & all the good work they do is unparalleled. They are at a pivotal moment with two clinical trials of gene therapies underway, but they need a lot of support to keep their work going!!!

We both enjoy to run (very casually!) but never in our lives have done any distance near a marathon so this will definitely be a big challenge! We're excited to push ourselves out our comfort zone, & doing it for Poppy is all the motivation we need. We're training in the heat in Mexico in the jungle so it is going to be a very different energy in Manchester! It will only be Will's second time in the UK (& third time outside of Mexico!) & Manchester United are his team so he's very excited to go there. It'll be my first time in Manchester too, & it's extra special because it's the home of Reverse Rett so we'll have the honour of running with other families of children with Rett. We won't have been back to the UK for nearly 2 years so it means a lot to us to be able to fundraise for Poppy as we're not there to help out with her care day to day.

Many thanks for your support, we truly appreciate it so much.