On Sunday 27th April, I will be running the London Marathon to support CoMET (Children’s Medical Emergency Transport) and The Air Ambulance Service.

As parents, you never expect to need the remarkable services these organisations offer but that’s exactly what happened to us.

In October 2023, our son, Joe, unexpectedly began having a prolonged seizure at home and was taken to Lincoln County Hospital. Whilst in A&E, Joe had to be put onto a ventilator and ventilation would be required overnight. As Lincoln County Hospital does not have a paediatric intensive care unit, a transfer to Nottingham’s QMC Hospital was required. The CoMET team provided Joe with specialist transport between the 2 hospitals and were able to support his breathing with their onboard ventilator to ensure a safe arrival at Nottingham QMC. The onboard team were also extremely supportive and provided Joe with a teddy bear called Cosmo which not only provided comfort but also acts as a support for the breathing tubes. After 5 days on the ventilator, Joe was able to breathe on his own. The CoMET team again provided transport back to Lincoln Hospital where Joe would continue his recovery at Lincoln’s Rainforest Ward.

The second charity I am raising money for is The Air Ambulance Service as unfortunately in February 2024, Joe suffered another prolonged seizure while we were visiting Twycross Zoo. As we were in a remote location, an Air Ambulance was dispatched, enabling a critical care doctor and paramedic to be on the scene quicker than a land ambulance. We will be forever grateful to the Air Ambulance Service for their quick response. The Air Ambulance staff travelled in the land ambulance with Joe to provide outstanding care.

We have also found out that Joe and I share a genetic condition which may make Joe more susceptible to prolonged seizures. Despite a third seizure in March 2024 and another briefer hospital stay, the care he has received and continues to do so through his regular hospital appointments, has ensured Joe is a happy and healthy 2-year-old, who is full of fun!

On a personal note, the last 12 months has been difficult for my own mental health, suffering from periods of anxiety and PTSD linked to what has happened. When I initially got the email about being successful for a ballot place in the London Marathon, I didn’t feel excited due to how I was feeling. However, training for this marathon along with support from family, friends and many other people has significantly improved my mental health. Sometimes the best thing to clear your head is to put your trainers on and get outside, which training for this marathon has allowed me to do.

We will never be able to express how grateful we are for the care, compassion and professionalism (along with the wider NHS care) our family received from these services, when we faced some incredibly difficult moments. We will always want to support them. Therefore, any funds we are able to raise would mean a lot to us. This is because it would be a way of saying thank you to those we owe so much to. I would like to try and raise equal amounts for each charity.

A little background to both charities:

The CoMET team support critically ill children in the East Midlands and are based in Leicester and Nottingham Children’s hospitals. They take children from their local hospitals to hospitals with paediatric intensive care units. Donations would enable the service to provide a Cosmo teddy bear to each child. These bears provide comfort, act as support for tubing for those children on life support and enable medical staff to demonstrate procedures to children. Furthermore, donations would enable the service to provide parent packs with essentials to support parents when they are unexpectedly travelling to another hospital with their child.

The Air Ambulance Service operates the local air ambulance services for Warwickshire & Northamptonshire and Derbyshire, Leicestershire & Rutland as well as the national paediatric and neonatal transfer service, the Children’s Air Ambulance, covering the whole of the UK. The Air Ambulance Service does not receive funding from the government for its daily missions. It relies entirely on voluntary donations and support from our communities and business. Your support will keep them flying.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story. Any donation you can to give to these wonderful charities please would be greatly appreciated. As additional motivation to keep up my training I will donate £2 for every minute I am over my goal time of 3hrs 30 minutes at the marathon.

Thank you.