Amie Swift

Running 100 Kilometers for Great Ormond Street Hospital: A Personal Mission

I’m running 100 kilometers for Great Ormond Street Hospital—not just because it’s a good cause, but because it’s personal.

When I was seven, I became the second person in Britain diagnosed with a rare autoimmune disorder—and the first child. It hit hard. I couldn’t walk without pain. I couldn’t sit up without vomiting. I lost my eyesight for a while, and one side of my face stopped working. I went through two lumbar punctures and was placed in a cancer ward, which was heartbreaking. But even in that sadness, I found connection. I made friends while waiting for procedures at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, where Great Ormond Street had kindly sent me to receive the best care available.

I still remember the top professor at Great Ormond Street—calm, brilliant, and almost cheeky. He looked at me and said, “Amie, your body is attacking itself because it’s bored.” It was a strange kind of comfort—a moment of levity in a sea of uncertainty.

I was put on 13 tablets of Prednisolone a day, slowly weaned off over two years. Just in time for community college GCSE years. Just in time for the millennium.

The autoimmune condition returned 16 years later, but only as arthritis. And now, my health is the best it’s ever been. The illness stayed gone. I’ve been resilient. I rarely get sick.

They gave me my life back.

Now, I’m running to give something back to them.

About GOSH Charity

Childhood is special. It should be a time of joy, wonder, curiosity and fun. Of making friends, making mistakes, and growing into the adults we become. But it’s also fragile, and sometimes all too brief.

That’s why Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity raises funds 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 Great Ormond Street Hospital every day, for children with rare or complex illnesses everywhere, for this generation and all those to come. Because no childhood should be lost to serious illness.

And with every kilometre I run, and every pound raised, we’ll be helping to give seriously ill children the best chance and the best childhood possible.

Please help me to achieve my goal by giving whatever you can; no amount is too small to make a difference.