My Story

In 2014, we spent two weeks in the John Radcliffe Hospital PICU and HDU when our son Matthew was nearly killed in a head on collision on his way to a party when he was 10. He was only wearing a lap belt and needed life saving surgery on his stomach, followed, a week later, by spinal surgery to mend broken vertebrae.

The way he (and we!) were cared for by the entire team at the JR has remained with us constantly. At the time, the nurses in PICU were hoping to raise the funds for a new door security system to allow them to open the doors without leaving their patients’ bedsides. So a year after Matthew’s accident, I decided to run a half marathon to raise money for the PICU unit.

Now, nearly a decade on, our three children are older (indeed Matthew is now in his third year at University studying Astro physics) and I finally feel I can devote the time to train for a full marathon. We will always feel we owe the life of our son to everyone at the JR and therefore applied to run the marathon for them as my opportunity to give something back!

To do this marathon in the tenth anniversary year of his accident is quite poignant. Matthew is now living his best life enjoying surfing, snowboarding, skateboarding, American football and rock climbing and we owe it all to the team at the JR.

Please give generously!