Tracey Greene
Team Zoe's Sponsored Walk for the Kingston Paediatric Diabetes Team
Fundraising for Kingston Hospital Charity
Story
In January 2016, our beautiful daughter, Zoe was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. This means her pancreas has stopped producing the insulin which is essential to enable her body to deal with the glucose her body produces whenever she eats and drinks anything. Quite simply Zoe needs insulin to survive.
The paediatric diabetes team at Kingston Hospital have been simply amazing from the moment of her diagnosis. The team has provided us with all the information we needed to bring Zoe's blood sugar levels to a safe level with her life saving insulin and have taught us how to manage the highs and lows caused by this horrible chronic illness. Not only have they taught us well they have provided amazing support, reassurance and access to new information and will continue to do so throughout Zoe's childhood, as there is currently no cure for T1 diabetes. They have helped us to find our 'new normal'.
This team (just two specialist nurses, 1 consultant, a dietician and a family counsellor) is simply fantastic supporting almost 200 children with T1 diabetes in the local area and have always been just a phone call away. Without them I'm not sure how we'd have coped, particularly in the early days.
Typically the team see 15 children added to their case load every year. 2016 has been an exceptional year with 26 new cases (including Zoe) in the first 8 months of the year so resources are stretched.
The team has therefore decided to organise a sponsored walk in Richmond Park to raise some much needed funds to;
1. purchase continuous blood glucose monitors to lend out to patients and families to improve blood glucose control. This massively helps to understand how your child reacts to all the triggers that affect your blood sugars (food, drink, exercise, hormones, emotions, even the weather!).
2. to run a programme of social events for the children such as bowling nights, pizza nights and the Christmas party for younger ones, allowing them to have fun and to meet other children with this condition so they don't feel isolated and alone
3. purchase books about diabetes to loan out to families - we knew nothing about T1 diabetes when Zoe was diagnosed, now I reckon we could hold our own in a specialist subject round of Mastermind!
and finally 4 . to fund diabetes UK holidays for children who would otherwise not be able to go
We originally planned to complete the walk as a family come rain or shine but Zoe's fantastic classmates had other ideas and many have volunteered to walk with us and get themselves sponsored too to raise these much needed funds. Whilst there are 3 routes to choose, Zoe has opted for the longest walk - the perimeter of the park (about 7.35 miles) as she loves a challenge!
A big shout out goes to the following children from 5G (plus parents) Teagan Hartney and her sister Erin, Abi Witt, Bea Sheridan, Kai Purnell, Rhys Hopkins, Grace Antons plus of course my lovely niece Sam Eckford
We'd love to have your support to help us on our journey and hope you can donate a few pence or pounds and enable the diabetes team to offer their skills, knowledge and resources to the more and more families affected by this disease.
Thank you
Elaine and Andy
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
The paediatric diabetes team at Kingston Hospital have been simply amazing from the moment of her diagnosis. The team has provided us with all the information we needed to bring Zoe's blood sugar levels to a safe level with her life saving insulin and have taught us how to manage the highs and lows caused by this horrible chronic illness. Not only have they taught us well they have provided amazing support, reassurance and access to new information and will continue to do so throughout Zoe's childhood, as there is currently no cure for T1 diabetes. They have helped us to find our 'new normal'.
This team (just two specialist nurses, 1 consultant, a dietician and a family counsellor) is simply fantastic supporting almost 200 children with T1 diabetes in the local area and have always been just a phone call away. Without them I'm not sure how we'd have coped, particularly in the early days.
Typically the team see 15 children added to their case load every year. 2016 has been an exceptional year with 26 new cases (including Zoe) in the first 8 months of the year so resources are stretched.
The team has therefore decided to organise a sponsored walk in Richmond Park to raise some much needed funds to;
1. purchase continuous blood glucose monitors to lend out to patients and families to improve blood glucose control. This massively helps to understand how your child reacts to all the triggers that affect your blood sugars (food, drink, exercise, hormones, emotions, even the weather!).
2. to run a programme of social events for the children such as bowling nights, pizza nights and the Christmas party for younger ones, allowing them to have fun and to meet other children with this condition so they don't feel isolated and alone
3. purchase books about diabetes to loan out to families - we knew nothing about T1 diabetes when Zoe was diagnosed, now I reckon we could hold our own in a specialist subject round of Mastermind!
and finally 4 . to fund diabetes UK holidays for children who would otherwise not be able to go
We originally planned to complete the walk as a family come rain or shine but Zoe's fantastic classmates had other ideas and many have volunteered to walk with us and get themselves sponsored too to raise these much needed funds. Whilst there are 3 routes to choose, Zoe has opted for the longest walk - the perimeter of the park (about 7.35 miles) as she loves a challenge!
A big shout out goes to the following children from 5G (plus parents) Teagan Hartney and her sister Erin, Abi Witt, Bea Sheridan, Kai Purnell, Rhys Hopkins, Grace Antons plus of course my lovely niece Sam Eckford
We'd love to have your support to help us on our journey and hope you can donate a few pence or pounds and enable the diabetes team to offer their skills, knowledge and resources to the more and more families affected by this disease.
Thank you
Elaine and Andy
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