The Lily Foundation is a special charity to me. I work as a nurse on neonatal ICU and 2 years ago I had the pleasure of looking after the sweetest little boy, Leo. After a short but difficult time on the unit for Leo and his family, it was confirmed he has mito. I’ve taken part in multiple charity events with Leo’s amazing mum and I made the decision to choose this charity for this years GNR. There is no cure for this disease and it isn’t very well known, so this is for Leo, his family, and all the other children and their families, to raise awareness and hopefully one day find a cure ❤️

Leo is Laura & Kev's beautiful son. He was born on 4th January 2024 with a button nose, long eyelashes and 10 tiny toes. Leo was also born with a very rare form of mitochondrial disease, known in abbreviated terms as LBSL.

This diagnosis has left them feeling extremely sad and confused, not least because Leo appeared to be a healthy newborn baby. Since then, Leo has shown little progress in terms of his development and his vision remains significantly impaired.

As parent they draw strength from his beautiful smiles, and the wonderful support they receive from those around them but they are fearful about his future, and they don't want others to ever feel this way.

I am joining together with them as part of "Team Leo" to raise funds to help The Lily Foundation, a charity dedicated to mitochondrial disease fund vital research into a cure and also support families just like Leo's through some scary days.

Please donate what you can and together we can give hope.

Thank you