Next Friday, 16th September, I am hoping that we will be able to celebrate having raised £1.5m for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
That would be a wonderful outcome to what was a dreadful 5 years, which started just after my son Oscar turned 3 in 2002. After 2 leukaemias, 2 bone marrow transplants, 1 stem cell transplant, 1 spleen removal, 5 brain haemorrhages, 1 broken spine, 2 spells on life support and frankly much more, the little bugger survived and is 'living proof' of why it's worth donating to childhood cancer research – if he'd been ill only a year or two earlier he would have died, without question. Oscar survived – and we got through it – thanks to huge support from researchers, doctors, teachers, nurses and all our friends. Oscar is now 17 years old, healthy and training to be a chef (see right for Oscar's progress over the years).
If my emotional arm twisting has tempted you to help us hit our target, please sponsor the Spinnaker dragon boat team next Friday.
All funds raised go to the OSCAR Campaign (www.gosh.org/oscar) which is funding two research teams at GOSH/ICH. They need every penny they can get to keep on going.
OUR JUST GIVING PAGE IS HERE: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/SpinnakerStrokes
I know there are lots of requests for sponsorship nowadays and many of our you have already generously donated. I hope you will consider supporting us if you can but please rest assured if you have already done so and cannot again, it is greatly appreciated and I hope you don’t mind receiving this.
You can watch Oscar's story on the X Factor TV programme from 2009 and read more about why we're doing this at http://www.gosh.org/events-and-appeals/appeals/oscar/background-oscar-campaign.
Thank you so much and all the best,
Phil Parry
Chair of the OSCAR Campaign
