In December 2015, our 9-year-old daughter - Eleanor - was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease. Oddly enough the diagnosis was a relief after 6 months of tests and watching a hitherto healthy nine-year-old disappear in front of our eyes.  Since then we've been trying to understand and help Eleanor live with this long term condition.

We've received fantastic support from the hugely talented team at Addenbrooke's Hosptial. It was one of this team, Mary Brennan (Clinical Nurse Specialist, paediatric gastronenterology), who put us in touch with the Crohn’s in Childhood Research Association (CICRA).

CICRA is dedicated to creating a wider understanding of Crohn’s Disease and Ulcerative Colitis, particularly as it affects children and young adults. It raises funds to support approved medical and scientific research aimed at finding more effective treatments and an eventual cure.

Over the 34 years that CICRA has been established several million pound has been put into research and many of the leading paediatric gastroenterologists treating children today have been trained through the CICRA Research Fellowship scheme. Basic research has provided a huge amount of knowledge which is helping treatments and management. 

In addition to research, CICRA offers support to children, young people and their families affected by Crohn’s or Colitis for example, by organising meetings in different regions of the UK. These days offer us and parents/carers like us, children and young people an informal day of meeting others and learning more about their condition including small ‘meet the expert’ sessions.

CICRA receives no government funding and needs to raise funds on a continuous basis to maintain and expand the research programme and to give support and help to families of young children and young people affected by Crohn's Disease and Ulcerative Colitis. 

I'm stepping into my running shoes after a long time out and plan to train, then trundle, from Newcastle to South Shields in the Great North Run in September. I would love it if you could take the time to sponsor me and hopefully my fundraising, along with the efforts of others, will support CICRA to continue offering support to  children, young people and their families affected by Crohn’s or Colitis and to help find a cure for this chronic disease. 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page and for your support.

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.