Now as well as being a fundraiser for CRUK, I am a mum - thankfully to 3 very healthy children! If twitter has taught me one thing, it's that me and my family are very lucky - I see tweets every day from charities, fundraisers and other mums about children living in poverty, disabled children, children living with life-threatening illnesses, and sadly children who have lost their battles too....I consider myself very fortunate that I haven't had to learn to cope with any of these issues, and my heart goes out to every parent who does.
In 2010, when I saw a tweet from The Children's Trust about their Sleepwalk event (a 10 mile walk at 10pm!) I decided immediately to sign up - I had followed their work closely on FB and twitter, and had read (and cried at!) their stories of brain-injured children who had been rehabilitated there. I put a post on my facebook page asking if anyone wanted to take part with me - pleading with my friends, as mums, to put themselves in the shoes of a parent whose life is changed forever when their child suffers a brain injury. I managed to persuade one other local mum, but was a little disappointed I couldn't round up more support for such a fabulous cause! The event was great and despite the fact that I'm always fundraising for something or other, I did manage to raise around £150!
So, the whole point of the story comes to this.....
My husband's 16 year old cousin (yes, huge age gap, his mum had him 'later in life'!) was 2 days away from starting his first year in sixth form when he felt a bit odd. He phoned his mum at work, but she was an hour away....when he started to feel numb on the left side of his body, thankfully he had the sense to call himself an ambulance - when he described his symptoms, 3 ambulances turned up! Scans, tests and emergency brain surgery.....the lives of a whole family were turned upside down in a matter of hours - the doctors even recommended his father fly out from South Africa, things were that in the balance! After 2 months in hospital, I'm now pleased to say he is undergoing rehabilitation and every therapy you can name...... at The Children's Trust :-) He is making fantastic progress and after visiting him there am confident he is in the very best hands possible.
My point, I guess, is this....don't wait for something to affect you directly. When you hear about a good cause, try to put yourself in the shoes of those they are helping...no one has the time or money to help every cause out there, but every £1 helps, and so does every FB share and twitter retweet.
Thanks for reading :-)
Nx
