October should be a month filled with balloons, birthday parties and happiness for our twin daughters’ 2nd birthdays. Unfortunately this year it will also be filled with sadness, as we will only have Sophia by our sides.

On 7th February 2023 we tragically lost our daughter Layla, aged 15 months.

In Layla’s memory, my husband Craig and his friend Graeme are taking on the amazing challenge of running the Loch Ness Marathon on 1st October 2023 to raise money for a very special charity.

Both Craig and Graeme have their own personal experience of the amazing support Ronald McDonald House Glasgow gives to the families of unwell children.

In 2021, when Layla was in the neonatal unit in Glasgow and then later in RHCG we lived in Ronald McDonald House Glasgow (RMHG) for 1 year. Without this amazing house, we would have had to make the awful decision of choosing between staying miles away from Layla or paying an unimaginable amount in hotel bills.

RMHG is so much more than a ‘house’, it became our home. Being able to stay just a few minute walk away from the ward, in a wonderful place filled with love, amazing staff and other families to share your journey with, who are all going through some of the most difficult times of their lives, is absolutely invaluable.

We will never truly be able to put into words how much they did for our family. They gave us a place out away from the hospital to make so many amazing family memories and it became a place where both our girls achieved many of their ‘firsts’. First smiles, words, waves, bumshuffles, times at a ‘soft play area’, picnics in the garden to name just a few. It will stay with us forever and we hope any other family who finds themselves in the unimaginable position of having a critically unwell child needing specialist level care, has access to the house should they need it.

In 2017, Graeme and his wife Daryl also stayed in Ronald McDonald House Glasgow for 10 weeks when their son Aiden was born. This will be Graeme’s second big run to raise money for the house.

Both Craig and Graeme not only had the adjustment into fatherhood when their children were born but also had to adjust simultaneously to life in a neonatal unit miles away from home. Having Ronald McDonald House Glasgow was a massive support to both our families in this time.

We are just two families who have unexpectedly needed their support. No one plans for their child being born unwell or becoming ill, especially for them then to be transferred to a specialist level hospital miles away from home. Having RMHG takes away the worry of where will you sleep, and how will you be able to afford the accommodation.

The house is only able to stay open due to amazing people like yourself donating. Thank you to everyone who has supported us so far and continues to do so. You are all absolutely amazing.

I’m sure knowing the amazing cause Craig and Graeme are running for and having all of your support behind them will help when their legs get tired and those blisters start to show.

Thank you again for every donation however big or small, each one means so much to us all.

Ronald McDonald House Glasgow is a small independent Scottish charity (SC023199) that provides free ‘home away from home’ accommodation for families with seriously ill children in hospital. The House costs in the region of £700,000 per year to run, helping c.500 families each year from across Scotland and further afield. The house has all the amenities you would find at home, enabling families to rest and recuperate in a safe haven, very close to their child in hospital.