Our beautiful son, Otis Wolf Sotos-Castello, was diagnosed with the condition CDH (cdh.org.uk) at the 20 week scan. At 29 weeks, his placenta also failed, and Otis had to be delivered by emergency C-section. We were told he was unlikely to survive the birth.

Otis, however, beat all of the odds, and continued to amaze everybody involved in his care, whilst we moved in residentially on the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit at QMC, alongside him, where he was cared for by the incredible staff unconditionally. He overcame many challenges in his short life, including major surgery, recovering from a heart attack, and suffering bleeds on his brain and lungs, amongst others. He spent his entire life on a ventilator, and much of his life sedated, but never once gave up his fighting spirit, was met and loved dearly by many family and friends, and strived to be the very best he could for himself and everybody else, and we will love him forever for it.

Sadly, after 7 weeks and 1 day, the intensely difficult decision had to be made to take Otis off life support, as his lungs were never going to be quite good enough, and we took him, as a family, to Rainbows Children's Hospice in Loughborough, to allow this heartbreaking event for all involved to happen in a calm, dignified, comfortable and supported manner.

The service and care provided by Rainbows was second-to-none, and we felt incredibly lucky to be able to access their support, which is ongoing to this day. In return for their efforts, my wife Imogen and I managed to raise over £2K for them, merely with a facebook fundraiser, and recognised how Otis's story touches and influences people and can make things brighter for the future. We want Otis's memory to live on forever, and for Rainbows to be able to continue to provide the same amazing input to other children and families undergoing similar difficult circumstances, and want to continue to help to raise funds for them over the rest of our lifetimes, and this is the first of hopefully many future challenges and fundraising attempts for Rainbows, and other associated services.

The National Three Peaks Challenge involves climbing the three highest peaks of Scotland, England and Wales in succession. The total walking distance is 23 miles, and the total ascent is 3064 metres. The total driving distance is 462 miles.

Myself and others plan to re-attempt this challenge on 9th/10th October 2021 (original date was postponed due to the pandemic); Otis would have been 2 and a half years old at this point; your ongoing support for us doing this would be valued dearly.

Please help to spare anything you can to support Rainbows Hospice to continue to be an invaluable resource who those who must access it, often at their darkest, confusing and most needing hour.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.