Madeleine Ellis

I’m swimming 8km in October for GOSH Charity!

I’m challenging myself to swim 8km this October to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH Charity).

Great Ormond Street Hospital is a place very close to my heart because it’s where my brother Charlie spent a lot of time while we were growing up. Charlie was very unwell as a baby and we later learnt that he had a complex genetic disorder called DiGeorge Syndrome, or 22Q11.2 deletion syndrome, which meant that everyday things such as walking and talking would have been impossible for him without surgery, and without the incredible team at GOSH. As a family we were supported from diagnosis through to Charlie’s most recent surgeries. Anyone who meets Charlie is so surprised by his story because he is the most outgoing, funny, full of life person you’ll meet - he is the definition of glass half full (apart from at the pub where he’s normally double parked) .

Charlie is an extraordinary boy but we were also very lucky to have the extraordinary team he deserved, who are the reason we all have the very best Charlie we could have!

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.