To introduce myself I’m Sophie and I'm a mum of 4 children, Alfie-Jack 13, Stanley-Ray 7, Betsy-Love 3 and Daisy-Dream who is 1 - all of whom have received care ( and Lots of it!) from several teams at the Leicester Royal.

Alfie was born with a rare condition known as a laryngeal cleft meaning that he had an unsafe swallow, after several infections and him stopping breathing we ended up spending two weeks on the children’s high dependency unit, after this he was tube fed and due to other issues with his digestive system, he has needed 20 surgeries and was fed via a feeding tube.

6 years later we had Stanley, when newborn he struggled to gain weight and became unwell, at 3 weeks old he was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis a life limiting genetic condition, and since has required care from the dedicated CF team at the hospital who have been on hand constantly to provided care, from clinics to hospital stays and everything in between.

When Stanley turned 4 during lockdown in 2020 we had Betsy!

It was confirmed that she also had cystic fibrosis, again the CF team have been on hand for everything, the day after she was born they were there on the maternity ward to check all was ok and have been a support ever since. Betsy has since needed care from several teams within Leicester hospitals.

In 2022 we had our final baby Daisy and just the same as Alfie, Stanley and Betsy, she struggled with feeding during the first few weeks after being born and went on to also be diagnosed with a laryngeal cleft meaning that we now had all 4 children requiring tube feeding and they have now had just under 40 lots of surgery between them.

We have had regular stays over the last 13 years with all 4 children in the hospital, we’ve now stayed on most of the children’s wards including the HDU and CICU units, they’ve required care from many teams who have helped all of our babies and I would like to do something to be able to give back.

A big goal of mine has always been to complete a London marathon, I’m most certainly not a runner but I decided to go for it and took the plunge and applied for a place for the 2025 run!

In order for me to complete this I knew I needed a goal and a reason why, and although it would be a personal achievement to complete a marathon, for me being able to raise funds for the children’s wards and the cystic fibrosis team that have helped all 4 of our babies would be the biggest achievement.

I am down to the last 6 weeks of training, having recently completed the Leicestershire half marathon. and I know that committing to raise funds for the Leicester hospitals charity will be a big factor in keeping me motivated as I know just how important these funds can be in helping children during their stays in hospital.

And now with even more reason to do it Daisy has just come out of a months stay in the LRI which included being on a ventilator in intensive care in which she was extremely unwell. she is now back home but my goal is to see Jack and all four of my babies at the finish line.

Any donations will be massively appreciated and they will make such a big difference to children receiving care at the hospitals.

Thank you ❤️