Members

[13 Nov 2009]

 Jo Gualano

Jo's Fundraising Page - https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/jogualano

Why the London Marathon?

Having built up my running over the last few years I feel its now time to have a go at the "big one!"

Why CLAPA?

My gorgeous daughter Bella (aged 8) was born with a submucosal cleft palate http://www.clapa.com/medical/article/328/. As a baby this caused her feeding, hearing and speech difficulties. As new parents this was distressing for Mario and I to observe, particularly as these symptoms were never linked with any sort of palate abnormality until she was aged 3. Happily, after corrective surgery and her hard work with dedicated speech therapists at Salisbury District Hospital she is now a 100% success story.

If my efforts on the 25th April go some small way to support raising awareness for submucosal cleft palates through CLAPA's work, then as a family we feel privileged that we have used the opportunity to give something back to this charity from who we have benefited.

Jane Lewendon
Jane's Fundraising Page - www.bmycharity.com/janelewendon

"I started running when I saw an advert in a local advert for a beginners running group run by the Women's Running Network. Having not run since school I thought this would be a good way to pass the time with a bit of gentle exercise. However I now find myself addicted and am juggling emotions of elation, fear and panic at the prospect of running one of the worlds greatest Marathons in April next year.
I have been working as a Clinical Psychologist at the Spires Cleft Centre in Salisbury for five years. I have seen and heard first hand from families how much of a lifeline CLAPA can be for parents, children and adults. Being able to talk with other families and individuals who have had similar experiences can be vital and the support that these local networks provide is immeasurable. For this reason I have chosen to run for my local CLAPA branch (CLAPA Wessex). I am hoping to raise stacks of money so CLAPA can continue to provide local services to further support families affected by cleft lip and palate."

Debra Reeves

Debra's fundraising Page - http://www.bmycharity.com/londonmarathon2010deb

"When I gave birth to Bryn in April 2006, aged 36 I was living in Germany. As parents we knew looking inside Bryn's mouth there wasn't something quite right. We had a difficult time breast feeding and Bryn lost a lot of weight. At 10 days old Bryn was rushed into hospital for various tests we were no closer to discovering our problem and I had become frustrated at not being listened to when I tried to explain there was a problem in his mouth. After four days I discharged Bryn and we went to see our military doctor who confirmed it was a cleft of the soft palate and set the ball rolling for our move back to England.

Once the appropriate calls were made to have us seen at Leeds hospital things began to change for the better. The staff at Leeds were brilliant and showed me how to feed Bryn with the correct bottles. Bryn was operated on just before his first birthday and has recently been fitted grommits under the specialist speech therapy team.

Bryn is the light of my life and without the dedication and support of those at CLAPA I don't know how we as parents could have coped. For this reason I am choosing to use my place on the London Marathon to support CLAPA.

I run 4-5 mornings in a week and train by my self. My husband is a serving member of the Royal Marine Commandos and will not be here to see me run as he will be in Afghanistan. I am already well into my training and feeling good."

Jo Windrum

Jo's fundraising Page - https://www.bmycharity.com/V2/jowindrum

"About me...I'm 27 married with a 6 month old boy, Freddie. Freddie was born with a cleft lip and palate and thanks to all the support and surgery he has received he is now doing just fine.

I am currently at home but was an assistant manager at a sports complex. I have run the Marathon twice and am a keen member of Northampton Road Runners!!"

David Russell

David's fundraising Page -

" My name is Dave Russell and I am 47 years old. This will be my fourth London Marathon and I am still wondering why on earth I applied to do this again, as  after each of my previous runs I declared triumphantly "I won't ever do this again !" But time passes and the memory of the pain diminishes, and for some mad reason I thought  "ok, lets give it another go"  I have always enjoyed keeping fit and regularly go to the (nice warm) gym  - but I hate the cold weather. It is therefore typical  that I will now have to train in the coldest winter for 30 years. My last marathon was in the hottest April for 30 years, so I think someone is trying to tell me something !  I have run for Clapa before. My son Joe was born with a cleft lip in 1998 and we were so grateful for the wonderful support we received from Clapa  right from day 1. My son is now 11 and still periodically sees Mr Sommerlad and his excellent team at Broomfield Hospital. He will start dental treatment in the next year and we know he will be in very safe hands. We  now try and support Clapa in any way we can, so when I got into the London Marathon via the public ballot,  I didn't have to think twice about the charity I wanted to support . I hope I can crawl round and raise some money to help in any small way during what must be difficult times  for any charitable organisation."