Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity. Registered charity no. 1160024
We’re supporting Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH Charity) and its appeal to build a new, world-leading Children’s Cancer Centre.
Together we can build it. Together we can help beat childhood cancer.
Why GOSH Charity?
Darren and his wife Karen will forever be grateful to the staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), the world-famous children’s hospital in London which, against the odds, saved the life of their then 18-month-old son Hadley after he collapsed at home on Christmas Eve in 2008, as he reached for a toy from his mum.
After surviving the initial scare, Hadley’s condition quickly deteriorated in his local Hertfordshire hospital, and he was transferred to GOSH. Months of tests and treatment followed, but doctors could not yet find a diagnosis for Hadley, who by then was experiencing more than 100 seizures a day.
At the time, doctors didn’t think that Hadley would survive the next few weeks. Darren said: “My wife and I were told that people don’t normally survive that level of seizures. The neurologist told us “He’s reached his endurance limits”. That phrase just cut right though me.
“It was so traumatic seeing our perfectly happy, perfectly normal 18-month-old son suddenly having more than 100 seizures a day. I remember picking up his medical chart one day in the hospital and seeing that in the last 24 hours there had only been three minutes when he wasn’t having a seizure. But Great Ormond Street Hospital is the land of hope. Even when you think you are doomed there is always a chance as long as they are on the case. Thankfully, they saved him. A few months later we were walking out the door with him.”
Now 18, Hadley is unable to walk or talk and needs constant round the clock care.
“He’s still having a lot of seizures to this day, and it has impacted his life in enormous ways,” said Darren. “But the doctors did what, at the time, looked impossible by just keeping him alive.
“Since then, me and Hadley’s mum have focused on giving Hadley as many experiences possible as he grows up. We’ve been able to make so many memories that wouldn’t have been possible if it wasn’t for GOSH.”
“I told the doctors, ‘After the care you’ve given to my son, I’m going to fundraise and donate it to GOSH Charity, so they can go above and beyond to support other seriously ill children like Hadley.”
True to his word, Darren has completed a number of epic endurance events to raise money for GOSH Charity, including rowing 2,400 miles across the Pacific from California to Hawaii and a jungle ultra-marathon.
We’re so proud to support the life-changing work at GOSH.
About the Children’s Cancer Centre
Childhood and cancer. Two words that should never go together.
But, every week, around five children in the UK lose their lives to cancer. That’s five families who are faced with the worst news possible.
A child doesn’t have to die from cancer for it to take their life. It can take away their childhood, their opportunities to learn and even to have children of their own one day.
That’s why we’re fundraising to help build a new, world-leading Children’s Cancer Centre at GOSH. To give more children the chance to lead happy, healthy lives. And to help improve the odds for children with cancer once and for all.
The Amazon Row challenge is supporting the Build it. Beat it. appeal to help build the Children’s Cancer Centre at GOSH and save more lives.
Together we can build it. Together we can help beat childhood cancer.
Visual representation of a hospital room in the new Children’s Cancer Centre and the rooftop garden.
About GOSH Charity
GOSH Charity stops at nothing to help give seriously ill children childhoods that are fuller, funner and longer. For the children from all over the UK who are treated by GOSH every day. For children with rare or complex illnesses everywhere. For this generation and all those to come.
GOSH has been transforming the lives of seriously ill children since opening its doors in 1852 and has always depended on charitable support. GOSH Charity funds groundbreaking research into children’s health, cutting-edge medical equipment, child-centred medical facilities and the support services children and families going through the toughest journey of their lives urgently need. But there is so much more we need to do.
Together, and with supporters like the Endurance Limits Team, we can give seriously ill children the best chance, and the best childhoods, possible. Because we believe no childhood should be lost to serious illness.
Donations made to the Endurance Limits Team’s Amazon Row Challenge will go towards vital cancer care services at GOSH, including the refurbishment of GOSH buildings, upgrading equipment, pioneering research, kinder treatments and offering vital welfare services to patients and families.
In the event that costs change, additional funds are received over and above our target, or the needs of the hospital or patients change, GOSH Charity reserves the right to redirect funds for use against the hospital’s most urgent needs.