Thank you for taking the time to visit one of my two JustGiving pages.

I feel excited (and a little bit scared) to have a place in the London Marathon, 24th April 2016.  Training is going well so far considering a year ago I said I would never do a marathon, and a 10k was long enough for me!  Now however, I am fully committed and putting my all into my training.  I am really looking forward to the day!  I thought it would be great if two charities that mean a lot to me and people close to me, will hopefully benefit from my efforts:   VISTA & SANDS.

Vista are a wonderful charity supporting children and adults with sight loss.  They are a charity close to our heart because of what they have done for our little Freddie, and many others with even more significant visual loss than Freddie.  I managed to raise over £250 for VISTA for running the Leicester Half last year and hope to raise even more if possible as a little thank you to them and so that they can continue to do their fantastic work.

We were introduced to Vista at the LRI when Freddie was a baby, and have since been on many trips with them and Freddie was also invited to a play group when he was small, with a sensory room to help his vision develop.  We are now aware of some of the many brilliant services they offer to support children and adults with visual loss including fun activities, talking newspapers, specialist rehab, one to one  and group support, educational sessions and much more.

Freddie was born in June 2010, a healthy baby boy.  At one day old we were told the red reflex was absent in both eyes.  We were then referred to the Ophthalmology team at the LRI and were quickly seen by a consultant…  After further tests Freddie was diagnosed with dense cataracts in both eyes.  The only option was surgery to remove the lens in each eye, which he had at 6 weeks old and 7 weeks old, and further surgery at 4 months to remove the stitches. Had his condition not been picked up so early Freddie would have certainly been significantly visually impaired or even blind, as a babies visual brain develops around 6-8 weeks, hence why the surgery is carried out then.  We are forever thankful for the outstanding care he received and still receives.  We then had to learn how to insert / remove contact lenses as Freddie is classed as aphakic (no internal lens in either eye), and when he was older he also began wearing very thick glasses if he didn’t have his lenses in.  Our little minion!   Appointments at the LRI have been stressful at times as Freddie’s prescription has been changed regularly (initially he was kept short-sighted to help his vision develop, now he has a prescription for distance).  He has regular pressure checks for glaucoma, regular vision tests and other checks on the health of his eyes.  He is doing amazingly well now and tolerates his contact lenses well, or his bi-focal aphakic glasses, he also has prescription swimming goggles. Currently the hospital have said he has driving-standard vision.  Vista have been a big part of our journey.

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