Thank you to everyone who has 'Liked' Harrison's page since it was launched a few days ago.

We've just been informed that over £700 was raised at the Easter Egg Hunt last Sunday which is incredible stuff and delighted to say that £300 has been donated to Harrison's Trust Fund after the costs of the event.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came once again and i hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. We would also like to thank everyone that helped on the day and of course Harrison's Uncle Ben for organising such a great day.

Organising anything like this when you just don't know in advance how many will turn up to get the right amount of goodies is always difficult. Suffice to say more was bought than needed (which increased the events costs of course) but you'll be pleased to know that a whole load of Easter eggs and other treats that were left over were taken down and donated to the Children's Ward at Poole Hospital (who cared for Harrison for many weeks after he was born) and were gratefully received, so many kids more benefited too from you kind generosity!!

Hi guys, we can announce a forthcoming event which will be great if you have little kiddies and the organisers have offered to donate some of the money raised to Harrison's Trust Fund which is fantastic news and so very kind - take a look, please Share, Like and make anyone aware that might like to attend, many thanks

Baby Sensory Charity Sessions run by Nim Dutt, email  bournemouthwest@babysensory.co.uk

Harrison has been given some funky new glasses today which are just plastic, not metal, so that he wont keep breaking them etc…….and he’s very proud of them as you can see!!

Only a few weeks until Jo's 5k Spartun obstacle run in London raising money for Harrison's Trust Fund. She been training with her fellow runners doing specific drills down on the beach every saturday morning, climbing over and crawling under croynes and other daft things!! if you feel you can donate anything to help spur her on, please get in touch or click on the Paypal Donate buttons on this site :)

Many thanks
Jon

More than £500 has been raised to help make life easier for Harrison. Harrison’s uncle Ben Dilling is captain of Queen’s Park Golf Club and nominated Harrison's Trust Fund to be the beneficiary of the club’s annual Captain’s Day.

Read the full article in the Bournemouth Echo here...

Harrison's grandpa has recently been in touch with Frankie and Benny's restaurant who have not only kindly donated some vouchers for us to use as future raffle prizes, the Bournemouth restaurant has been selling Kids Eat Free VIP passes in order to raise funds and they have raised £60 towards the Harrison’s Trust Fund so far - how amazing is that!!! Thank you so much Frankie and Benny's!!

http://www.frankieandbennys.com/restaurant/frankie-bennys-bournemouth

Thank you so much to everyone that has already supported and donated but after all her hard training, Harrison's mummy is finally set to run in the London Spartun 5k Sprint on Sunday.

Its a mad obstacle course race designed to test resilience, strength, stamina and quick decision making skills. You can see a video of the sort of things she'll have to contend with here - http://www.spartanrace.com/london-obstacle-racing-spartan-sprint-2012.html

The run will demand every ounce of strength, ingenuity, and animal instinct so why Jo is doing it who knows........but then we do actually since its to raise money for Harrison, so if you havent donated already, please spur her on and give a penny or 2.

Just click on the donate button on the site or if you're not happy doing this through Pay Pal, just get in touch and we can give you alternative ways.

She'll really appreciate it as will Harrison of course,

many thanks everybody

xx

Having completed the London Spartun Run today Harrison's mummy has raised over £100 so many thanks to everyone that has donated, its really appreciated and helped her battle through the fire, nettles, electric wire, ice and other crazy obstacles - well done Jo

A massive thank you to Nim Dutt at Baby Sensory who recently ran a series of her Baby Sensory sessions and donated 50% of the money raised to Harrison’s Trust Fund, amounting to an incredible £305!!

Jo popped along to one with them with Harrison too and he loved every minute.

We only met Nim for the first time earlier this year at another event so her gesture of wanting to raise money for our little man is so kind and we can’t thank her enough, you’re a star Nim xx

For more information on the Baby Sensory sessions and other activities Nim does visit www.babysensory.com

We're very grateful to the guys at 4Dorset magazine for their lovely article in the recent issue promoting Harrison's Trust fund and the website.

you can see and read it here - http://content.yudu.com/Library/A1xshp/4DorsetAugust2012/resources/12.htm

A quick note to wish Melissa Bendon good luck with her 3 Peaks Challenge walk that she is doing this Saturday. The challenge involves walking the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales within 24 hours!!!

She is doing it with some friends but is using it to also kindly raise money for Harrison's Trust Fund, which we are so very grateful for.

Hopefully we'll be able to post some photos after she completes it.

If you know Melissa and want to donate to spur her on, please feel free to contact her or donate through Harrison's site, where you can also add a message of good luck (http://www.harrisonstrustfund.co.uk/donate.php)

Good luck Melissa and thank you so much from us all, especially Harrison of course xxxx 

2 friends of ours are running the New Forest Half Marathon on 23rd September and have kindly decided to also use it to raise some money for Harrison which is amazing news.

Both Matt Enock and Gareth Baynham love their sport and often run with Harrison’s dad but none of them have ever attempted this distance before so please give what you can as, and in their won words “our pain and suffering is for such a good cause and such a fantastic little man”

Many thanks guys xxx 

This weekend 2 of our friends (Matt and Gareth, aka 'Gee') are running the New Forest Half Marathon and raising money for Harrison too....so we want to wish them all the luck and hope you get the times you want.

Thanks for thinking of Harrison and good luck....

Love Jon, Jo, Harrison and Reece xx

We blogged a while ago about our dear friend Mel kindly raising money for Harrison by doing the 3 peaks challenge. She completed it and she has written the following giving us just a little feeler of how it went.....

"For me it was both a personal challenge as well as raising money for lovely Harrison. It was both physically and emotionally demanding walking the three mountains over a relatively short period of time through both night and day combined with sleep deprivation and the weather at Ben Nevis and Scarfell, at times if felt everything was against us!! The views when we had them were spectacular especially at Snowdon where we had the better weather. We finished in 26 hours and 17 mins which taking on board the weather conditions was good timing. Doing this for a worthy cause to provide Harrison with the equipment he needs to develop made it all worth it. I am so grateful for the support that everyone gave me both in the group, the £250 donations given and also for my family giving me the time to train to enable me to do the challenge. And now I've had time to reflect and recover I am thinking about the next one.....:-)!

My quote of the trip was 'I just need to catch my breath'"

We think that Mel did so well since the weather condtions were clearly awful and very unkind her and her fellow walkers....so with thast in mind we are even more grateful than we were anyway!

Thank you so much Mel, we really do think you're a star xx

The photo shows Mel (with her lovely daughter Daisy) and Harrison sat with mummy.

We want to say a massive thanks to Ali Woods, a friend of Harrison's Uncle Ben. He recently raised £150 for his trust fund by running the Bupa London 10k back on the 27th May 2012. 

We know Ali a little and I think even he will admit that running isn't 'his thing'. He completed the race in a really good time though so as well as raising this fantastic amount, we think he should be really proud with himself and we are ever so grateful for thinking of our little man.

Many thanks Ali

Love Jon, Jo, Harrison and Reece xx

We want to thank friends of Harrison's daddy, Matt (on the right in the photo above) and Gareth (on the left obviously), for their incredible effort for not only running the New Forest Half Marathon recently on 22nd September 2012 but more importantly for raising over £500 for Harry's trust fund in doing so.

To say that the weather was bad is a huge understatement. The rain was absolutely lashing it down so it became a far tougher 'first half marathon' than they had expected, making their efforts even more amazing!

Furthermore, Matt hardly got any sleep as preparation. Going to bed a 21.30 he found himself still awake at 02.30, suffering a mixture of nerves and dread. He decided to go downstairs to watch some inspirational films and as he describes, “2 films later, it was time to start eating - 2 bananas was all I could face with a swig of energy drink and half a cup of coffee!”

 “07.30 saw me kissing the wife, all tucked up cozy in bed, normal routine of threats and cuddles for the kids and I was out the door and into what can only be described as "torrential downpour". It was at this point that I started muttering what was to become the mantra for the day to myself, 'Think of Harrison, think of all the kind people that have donated so much money, stop whimpering, man up and let’s go!!'"

Gareth's preparation was however a little different. Already having the expectation of a tough day and having not put in the required training, he mentions that "having a cool Foster's Gold whilst watching Match of The Day meant I slept like a baby!"

So after a 20 min walk to the start, thoroughly soaked and cold, they set off on the 13 miles run promptly at 09.15 as planned!

But they both finished and in amazing times. Matt came 580^th out of the 1597 that entered running the 13 miles in 1h 50m 31secs, Gareth 950^th running in 2 hours dead!

Matt and Gareth want to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all those that have supported them and have taken the time and consideration to donate.

But more importantly we want to thank them........ so thank you and well done guys!!

After so many kind friends and family raising money for Harrison, it’s now my turn to step up to the plate!

I've decided to enter a 'Hellrunner' trial running race on Sunday 11th November, along with Harrison's Uncle Ben and some other 'mentalists'.

But what is the 'Hellrunner' you might ask?

Well the website explains it as "trail running at its toughest and most enjoyable (I'd question that last adjective!!). About 12 miles of challenging off-road running… tough, twisting trails… including the famed Hills of Hell and the Bog of Doom! " 

So in other words running a bloody long way up, down, through and over all sorts of muddy hills and obstacles....including a huge smelly muddy puddle (up to your chest by all accounts) too!! So cosmic!!

As many of you know I do try to keep myself quite fit and go out for a run or 2 but I've never done a race like this before, let alone run the distance, so fingers crossed!!

I'm very conscious that everyone's got commitments at what is a tough time still so please don't worry if you are unable to donate. I'm also hoping to do something far bigger than this either next year or the one after so if you do feel you are able to donate, I'm really not after loads of your money........not just yet anyway. If everyone donated even just a fiver now it would be amazing and we would be so very grateful for your help, it all counts!

In case you were wondering why, we are constantly raising money to ensure that Harrison gets to enjoy life as much as possible and has everything in order to do so, be it therapy, care or general kit (everything is so expensive you wouldn't believe)

So if you feel you can, you can donate either directly through this site via PayPal (where you can also leave a message I believe, just as you can through JustGiving etc) or if you'd rather, please just get in touch with me (via info@harrisonstrustfund.co.uk if you wish) and I can give you the trust fund account details to transfer directly into it or even my address to send a cheque.

Thank you so much in advance guys and I'll tell you more on here once I've completed it...hopefully!!!!

Best wishes

Jon

Harrison’s dad’s cousin (is that his 2nd cousin??) has decided to enter the Boscombe 10k race on the 25th November, her aim to raise some money for his trust fund.

This is the first running race that Dom has ever entered so whilst she had been training really hard, she’s extremely nervous so we are so very grateful for her thinking of our little man.

We know that she’s going to do really well though but please spur her on even more by donating what ever little you can for Harrison

Well done Dom and good luck!!

xx

(Thats me on the far right by the way)

So we did it, Harrison's uncle Ben, my mates Matt Enock and Gareth Baynham and myself completed and survived the ‘HellRunner’!!!!

The short story is that we came up against and ran the 'hills of hell' and the 'bog of doom’ (which actually turned out to 4 bogs and a lake!!) but we all loved every minute of it!

Click Here to see the photos to prove it - but if you want to know more please read on...........

The HellRunner website stated that the run offers trail running at its toughest and most enjoyable and I have to say they are spot on, it really was both. According to some regulars this year was also one of the hardest yet, and according to the organizers, the wettest ever!

Getting up early at 6.30am, I looked out of the window and everything was white with frost. Not what I'd hoped for as that obviously meant it was freezing outside but although extremely cold to start with, as the sun come out as we made our way there, the weather was in fact perfect running conditions once we warmed up.

Getting up early gave enough time to eat loads of porridge, have a strong coffee and get ready before Ben came round to set off. We met the other lads on the way and got to Longmoor Army Training Camp near Aldershot.....yes a camp where the army train soldiers....and to prove it as I stepped out of the car there was a bullet in the mud (which I actually brought home for Reece as a kind of memento for him)!!!!!. 

The first challenge of the day was the car park itself, which was more of a mud bath after the rain we've recently had.......what would this mean the course would be like we all thought?

We had a walk to the start area which actually led us past some of the course and the infamous 'bog of doom'!! It certainly added to our nervous excitement although knowing how cold it probably was, more than a little dread too!

We made our final preparations at which point Ben pulled out on his 'Anatomy Man' mask and outfit on which looked brilliant and rather in keeping with the hellish theme of the day. The mask didn’t stay on for long although did seem to reappear every time there was an official camera man handy!! You can see the photos for evidence.

So 10.30 came and we lined up with the other thousand plus runners and theatmosphere was amazing, one where everyone was looking at each other thinking 'what the hell are we doing here'!

A version of Hell on stilts started the race off with smoke and sirens and we started to run with no real idea of what was actually in store. 

What came next was running the toughest terrain, wading through 3 or 4 icy cold bogs as well as a lake, all where the water came up our chest, climbing up and sliding down mile after mile of massive muddy sheer face hills and if that wasn't enough, then having to run up and down a series of sand dunes for the last 3 miles to completely finish us off. I didn't feel too bad for most of the run but a combination of the distance and icy water meant I ran the last 2 miles or so with cramp in both calf's.....but it certainly didn't stop me.

There was one last icy bog (of course, why not chuck another one in?!?!?) to wade though and then the finishing line was in sight. 

Matt and I ran over the finish line together in 1 hour 47 minutes to finish in the top 450 out of 1300 competitors who completed the course (several others didn’t), Ben in 1 hour 52 minutes and Gareth in 2 hours 13 minutes, which we were all delighted to achieve. In fairness to Gareth and he’ll admit it himself, he could have done better but with absolutely no training for the past 2 months due to illness, commitments and other than drinking London Pride and smoking Marlborough Lights, that alone is a pretty impressive achievement.

Ben was delighted though. He had only started running in January of this year, having not done any form of fitness previously apart from a slightly quicker walk to the bar at closing time. This was his first competitive run so to complete 10 miles is a feat in itself, for those to be 10 miles of what I've just explained is amazing.....so well done Bruv!!

It really was extremely tough, the toughest thing we have all ever done by far but it was also the most amazing experience, giving us all an incredible sense of achievement. As I'm writing this on the Wednesday after running on Sunday, my calf’s are still in pain after the cramps I suffered! But when else do you get the chance to jump into muddy bogs like that??

But more importantly lets not forget that Ben and I did it to raise money for Harrison and we are so very grateful for all the very kind and generous donations so many of you have made.

I'm delighted to say that at this point we have raised in the region of £1,700 which is just incredible and will make such a difference to Harrison as and when he requires new essential equipment and care.

And without wishing to be greedy, I do feel it would be amazing to now try and reach a magic target of £2,000 so fingers crossed and with everyone’s help, this can be achieved.

If you're unable to donate please don't worry, I hope you enjoy the photos and my blog as so many have wanted to know more about the day, but if you are able to add a small amount to our figure, thank you so much.

Donations can be made via PayPal through this site (link on the right hand side of this page) or alternatively I can send you the trust back account details for online transfer or indeed my address for a cheque.

So, to conclude, through the pain it seems that we are now all totally hooked to these sorts of crazy trial races and are looking for others to compete in already - so Harrison has turned us all into madmen!!

On behalf of Harrisons Trust Fund and I, thank you all for your support and generosity, it really does mean so much.

Jon xx

^{(Dom at the Boscombe 10k)}

We'd like to thank Harrison's daddy's cousin Dom so much for recently raising money for his trust fund.

We blogged a few weeks back that she was going to run the Boscombe 10K and she did it in an amazing time despite the cold, wind and rain!!

So well done Dom, we're so proud of you and can't thank you enough for raising the money you have, which has now reached the £300 mark!! xx

Dom has written a fantastic account herself below to explain the experience and to thank everyone that so kindly donated to Harrisons's trust and which spurred her on so please have a read.

Thank you

"I set myself one challenge this year and that was to run a 10k for Harrison.

Those of you that know me know that I like a little run now and again. To be honest, until the beginning of this year I never seemed to be able to get past 3-4 miles (5-6 k). So I decided to start increasing my distance little by little, and soon realised that a nice long run on a Sunday was a great way to "escape" and de-stress! As a mum of 2 demanding under fives, I found a great new way to cope with the chaos!

So by the end of summer this year I decided I was ready to put my name down for the Boscombe 10k.  I had a few practice runs in the weeks leading up to the race but still found I was pretty nervous about it all. The big day came along and off we all trotted to kings park stadium. Luca was going to do the kids fun run but it was bloody freezing and a few yards in he decided he didn't fancy it! Unfortunately I didn't have that option! All my lovely sponsors were counting on me to complete this, come rain or shine.

Off we set at 11am on that freezing cold and windy Sunday, 600 runners, a lap of the stadium to start us off.

As those that know me will testify I do like to chat, so I thought I would drum up a little conversation en route. Some were receptive but I got a fair few grunts which I took to mean "buggar off, I am running a race".

The route was lovely, particularly enjoyed running through queens park golf course. It rained a bit and the wind was howling but I didn't really notice as I was in the zone man. The marshalls were amazing, so many of them along the route and all smiling and encouraging us. I ran the last 1k with a chap who was a fellow 10k "virgin" like myself and we had a chuckle as we hurtled along the track to the finish line, each one trying to be first ( he beat me by 1 second!). I completed it in 55 mins 32 seconds which I was really pleased with. A friend had promised me extra sponsorship if I did 20 press ups at the finish... and I can't quite believe it but I did it! Obviously high on adrenaline, can't seem to do more than 10 now!

Anyway I absolutely loved the race and am now itching to do another ( maybe 10 miles next time).

More importantly I am so thankful to all who sponsored me  as between us we have made a fantastic contribution to Harrison's fund. Awesome x"

We want to thank 'Little Munchkins' so much for their recent generosity.

Little Munchkins is run by Justine Bennett and Nikki Enock, friends of Harrison's parents, and specialise in catering for children’s parties large or small, at home or at a chosen venue. 

With Harrison's birthday on October 15th, they generously decided to donate £15 for each party they ran during the month, raising an amazing £100!

Thank you so much guys, we're so grateful for your help. xx

From starting out just providing delicious catering, they now offer amazing cookery parties for kids, something very different from the norm. They are now even venturing into adult parties too so even us oldies can enjoy their lovely food, as well as offering franchise opportunities too!

If you would like to find out a little more about their amazing food, parties and latest offers, please go to their website http://www.littlemunchkins.info/

Its been a long time since our last blog posting but we wanted to share some recent kind donations that have been made to Harrison’s Trust Fund.

2 of them have been made by a couple of local churches and totally out of the blue, which makes them even more incredible and us thankful for them.

The Ladies Guild at St Anthony’s Roman Catholic Church in West Moors got in touch via this site since they raise money for local causes every year selling Lenten Lunches before Easter. They kindly donated £150.

Contact was then made by another local Womens Church Prayer Group who get together and donate an small amount each time they do. They were able to send a cheque for £50 recently, which we are just nso very grateful for.

The last is a slightly odd one!!

Following seeing one of the articles in the local papers about our fund raising, a national publishing company got in touch. They publish one of the womens coffee break style magazines you can buy called ‘Thats Life’. They have a column called ‘You’re a Star’ and they wondered if Harrison’s mummy would like to nominate his daddy to be that star forthe ‘Hellrunner’ race he did.

He was featured within the 14 February issue and as a result they donated £100 to the fund.

We’d like to take this opporunity to thank everyone involved in these very kind and generous donations.

This is the first update we've posted since March as things have been fairly quiet on the fund raising front but my word, it was worth waiting for!

Ironically it was probably about March time that Harrison's Great Auntie Hil and Great Uncle Mike came up with an idea on how they wanted to help raise money for Harrison and his fund. The idea was a 'Quintessentially English Garden Party'!

To most this would be inviting a few friends and family round and offering a few cups of tea and a slice of cake, but not Hil and Mike!

No - a committee team was set up! Plans were hatched! Invites were sent out....and it soon became apparent that this wasn't going to be any small thing. In fact, as the RSVP's returned, the raffle prizes increased every week, the mention of cakes being made never stopped and more and more ideas were thought of, its true to say that this was going to be far bigger than a simple 'tea party'!

The committee continued to organise and more and more prizes were received from all sorts of donators, from local businesses to the likes of M&S, ASDA and Frankie and Bennies!

Sunday 11 August was the date and the weather couldn't have been any better to make it an unbelievable afternoon. Well over 200 people turned up to support Harrison, taking part in the raffle, face painting, hoopla, bric a brac, tombola, golf challenge, splat the rat, biscuit decorating, buying and eating all sorts of cakes and so much more. They could even have their photo taken in a vintage car or have a ride in a Porsche racing car!!!

With Hil and Mike both being Morris Dancers, entertainment was provided from various local Morris Dancers supporting their day. The Hobos, Bourne River Dancers, Dorset Buttons and Rapper Morris Dancers all danced magnificently in the sun, entertaining everyone and none more than Harrison himself, who had a whale of a time holding some bells and dancing along in his own way!

To say that the event was a success is a huge understatement. Magnificently organised and needing to be due to the numbers turning up, it was a brilliant afternoon and in the end it seems that the final figure raised could be in excess of £3,000, which is staggering amount and far more than everyone imagined.

We must thank all those involved in organising the event as well as those that danced and helped on the day, manning the various stalls and entertainment. But special mention must be for Hil and Mike of course. We are so incredibly grateful, words cannot describe how much, but we are! To have the thought in the first place is one thing but to go to such great lengths and to put on such an amazing event for our little man and raise so much money to help him is staggering.  You really did pull out all the stops!

We would also like to thank Hil's friend Penny, who we know did so much in helping to organise things, as well as Dom, Alan and Russ, Harrison's Granny and Joss and so many more that we probably don't even know helped!!

As well as the raffle, donations and the various stalls helping raise money on the day, a special mention must go to one very generous donation. Lisa Nolson, who runs ‘The Whole Package Happiness and Well Being Centre’ in Broadstone donated £2,000 worth of her treatment time, which raised £1,200 alone! Thank you so much to Lisa, we’re very grateful.

We’re still gathering the photos from the day but we’ll be posting them on the gallery section as soon as we have them.

So once again, we’d like to thank Hil and Mike and everyone involved again for supporting Harrison and raising such an amazing amount for his fund.

THANK YOU!!! XXX

Apologies for the title, we couldn't resist...but its true, we were!!

We were recently informed by some dear friends of ours who are members of Boscombe Cliff Bowling Club, that the club had made Harrison's Tust Fund their chosen charity. That in itself was amazing but to then be presented with a cheque by their President Frank, for £400 was overwhelming.

We'd therefore like to thank Frank and all the members for even thinking og Harrison and of course for their incredible generosity.

The picture shows Frank presenting us with the cheque.

Here is a video of Harrison at school given to us as part of his latest review.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChhfuXuCxD8&feature=youtu.be - hope it works and there are some other lovely videos on his Youtube channel too for you to watch.

We love this so much as it really shows his determination to achieve and participate at school, tyring to learn things when its clearly so difficult for him. It acts as a lovely 'fly on the wall' for us, seeing him in a very different environment to home. ...but its also fairly difficult to watch for us too, since it demonstrates how hard the simplest of things are for him and the challenges and frustrations he faces.

What we also love is the care, attention and patience of his teacher, Gill....they are all so amazing at Victoria School and they have helped Harrison so much...and we know they will continue to do so going forward.

Besides that, he clearly likes the camara though, I think we counted him pearing back at it with a smile at least 3 times...and if only he was this quiet and amused at home!!!

Well done Harry, keep it up.

We’ve started to make and upload some videos of Harrison on youtube, on hjis very own channel!!!

Here’s the link….http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrcQxPyj-p_UghPej7ZWK5Q

We can’t upload them directly but I’ve just realised that we can still put a link in a blog such as this and then you can all see them…enjoy the ones we have on there and we’ll keep uploading them this way

Many thanks

A friend of Harrison's dad from his university days (without giving too much away, it was a long time ago!!) recently got in touch having followed Harrison’s FaceBook page.

Barb Wells had entered the Bournemouth Marathon, along with her husband, as a way to mark a 'significant birthday' (as we all do….and we couldn't possibly say which one of course!). As well as the challenge of the training and then actually running it, had decided she also wanted to use it to get sponsorship in order to raise some money for the trust fund.

We were so delighted and grateful for her even thinking of Harrison, let alone wanting to raise some money for him.

So we not only wanted to use this opportunity to thank her, we also wanted to tell you all about how gutsy and courageous she was in the end (and it might spur even more people to sponsor her after hearing how amazing she was).

It was Barbs first ever attempt at a marathon and we kept in touch during her training, which was going really well, but then it all took a turn for the worse.

On one 18 mile run (yes, 18 miles!!) she injured her foot badly and wondered if she would be able to run the race all, so saw a physio. Fortunately the physio thought it would be fine with lots of ice and rest which she did, but it put a stop to the training at a vital stage with a few weeks still left to go until the big day!

Having not run again, things then got even worse. Barbs got a bad virus, so as well as not having trained as much as she would have liked for a distance she'd never run before, she was now really poorly as well… with only a week to go!!

The doctors advised against running and I think its fair to say that at that stage most of us would have given up, thought its not meant to be and probably gone back to bed…..but not Barbs. She put her trainers on and spurred on by everyone, started the race!!

Although she didn’t quite manage to finish it, remarkably Barbs still made it to the 23 mile mark, which with all things considered and knowing how ill she was feeling, is an incredible achievement and nothing to be ashamed of at all.

Barbs was naturally disappointed not to finish the race but I don’t think many of us would have even got out of bed feeling as bad as she did, let alone attempt to run 26 miles…and with raising money for Harrison’s trust fund at the same time, we think she should feel extremely proud of herself and we can’t thank her enough, except showing our gratitude on here......so thank you Barbs, thank you so much xxx

If you would still like to sponsor Barbs you can do so via PayPal on this site (http://www.harrisonstrustfund.co.uk/donate.php) or alternatively contact us or ask Barbs for the trust fund bank details (which we do prefer as PayPal take a small amount off every donation unfortunatley), thank you.

We had Harry's school parents meetings last night (with his teachers, then his physio, his OT and then language and speech therapist) and we had some lovely feedback on his progress there which was lovely. It seems his concentration levels in class are improving and tantrums are decreasing (we just which they were at home!).

The big bit of feedback for us was from his OT and in relation to his power chair driving. Due to Harry's lack of co-ordination and stiffness in his arms and hands, he finds it more difficult to use the normal joystick set up on the arm rest of his power chair so they've got him steering it with his head instead using a devise through the head rest (so turning left by moving his head left and stopping and moving using it too etc).

Not only did they say that he clearly understands how to use it and that he now knows his left and right (which he demonstrated to us there and then), we we're told that there is no doubt that he will be able to use this way to move around completely independently in a chair! 

It might be a while from now but if that is the case, and we just hope it is, it will be amazing to think that he might be able to move himself about independently and driving round corners (hopefully missing our walls and doors though, ha!).

The next thing on the agenda and he's actually going to be trying this out at school today, is a Neater Eater! This is a device that helps him feed himself (its a spoon on an arm which he can control himself)...and he was so excited this morning knowing that he was going to be trying this out (and since they were going to be doing it with chocolate mouse too!!)...so if he takes to this, it will give him even more independence!

We heard some great feedback in relation to his speech and how they are now trying to get him to say his vowels. This makes so much sense in terms of some of the noises and words we're hearing him say and try to say at home now. We were also able to offer some of our own feedback in terms of the words we know he is saying but which his teachers might not (such as he likes to be called Harry now, probably beacuse he can say that himself, not Harrison!!!!)

Well done Harry, you're doing so well and we're all so proud of you....despite your tantrums!!!

Mum, Dad and Reece xxx

We'd like to thank our dear friend Justine Bennett who recently entered and competed in the 'Mad March' short and fast triathlon on 27 April.

Consisting of a 250m Swim, 10 Mile Bike Ride, 3 Mile Run, Justine (pictured above with both Harrison, Reece and her award for competeting in the event) completed it in a brilliant 1 hour 21 minutes...but she has also raised over £700 towards our £5,000 target doing so (which is being raised towards a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle).

Justine has kindly written up an account of why she wanted to do the triathlon and how it went below so we hope you enjoy reading this.

We would now like to take this opportunity to thank her for so much for what she's done. The achievement of doing the triathlon is enough, but raising the money she has doing so is incredible and we're so grateful.

Furthermore and as justine does, we would also like to thank everyone reading this who has also donated sponsoring her.

Thank you everyone.....but especially Justine xxxx

Justine's account.........

Our children love looking at what they call my ‘medals’… I have a lot of 5k and a few 10k but I was never going to run any further. I wanted a challenge but long distance running is not for me.

 Cycling I love, running I can do, swimming I am perfectly good at but it doesn’t float my boat… so two out of three isn’t bad, so this was my next challenge, a triathlon! 

Simon (my husband) and I have known Jon since school years and then the beautiful Jo came along something like 15 years ago, marriage and children followed!

Jo and I were pregnant with our first children together, two boys; Reece for The Dillings and Samuel for us – these were special times long awaited for Jo and I.  We were both actually pregnant together again the second time round, me a little sooner with our little girl Bridgette and Jo with Harrison, there ended up being six months between them.

Our stories took a turn in different directions after Harrison was born and diagnosed with cerebral palsy…as friends we felt helpless, helping with Reece whilst Jon and Jo spent time with Harrison in hospital was all we could offer.  There was so much to take in and understand.

Five and a half years on we look in and see how amazingly strong Jon and Jo have been, it hasn’t been at all easy and will continue with different challenges for them as a family but Harrison is a beautiful, bright young boy and his loving, older brother Reece is a credit to his parents.

This triathlon seemed like the perfect opportunity for me to do something for Harrison’s Trust Fund and I have been amazed at people’s response, over £700 has been donated to date!

My training consisted of a lot of spinning classes, mainly due to the bad weather leading up to it, running, circuits and as little swimming as I could get away with!

By the time the triathlon came around I was fit and ready – but unfortunately I always have a battle in my head leading up to anything significant, because I am no athlete or a consistently fit person I worry that I will make a fool of myself!

At these times and at more difficult times during the triathlon I thought of Harrisons beautiful smile, my friends and family that have supported me and donated – just get on with it Justine!

250m swim – 10 mile bike – 3 mile run… the clock starts when you get in the pool and stops when you cross the line after the run!

Once the dreaded swim at 7.40am was out of the way for most part I enjoyed it… conditions were brilliant, a cool bright morning breaking into lovely sunshine.  Following advice from Anna Langbridge (Wellbody Health & Fitness), I stayed calm and steady for the swim, legged it throughout the very hilly bike route round Wimborne, reverting back to a steady pace to begin the run and finally giving it my all to finish!

What was special was to see my family there as I came into transition from bike to run and then at the end with Jon, Jo, Reece and Harrison too… I cried, it was my own personal marathon – done in 1 hour 21 minutes!

Thank you to everyone that has endured me warbling on, posting progress on Facebook, giving me messages of support and most of all to all of you that have so kindly donated to Harrison’s Trust Fund.

Justine xxx

Our beautiful little boy turned 5 back in October and I thought it would be an appropriate time to document his progress to date.  Many people following Harrison’s development and who have kindly donated to his Trust Fund often ask how he is progressing too so I hope it makes for an interesting read. I also think it will help me and my family realise how far we’ve all come since the tough times when Harrison was a baby.

Slowly but surely the shock and sadness we felt when Harrison was first diagnosed has subsided and we have learned to cope and understand his disabilities, taking each day as it comes.  We’ve watched him grow and learn at his own rate, celebrating each and every one of his achievements.  Of course we still feel extreme sadness that our precious little boy has such fundamental physical and learning problems, which will never go away.  Not a day goes by when I wonder what Harrison’s life, and indeed our lives, would have been like without his special needs but one thing I do know is that everyone is unique we all have our faults and blemishes and Harrison has an amazing personality, understands so much of what we say around him, he’s beautiful and we are so proud of him.

That said it’s not been without many tears along the way, mostly from Harrison still daily, but in our eyes Harrison's’ development over the last year or so has been incredible. With his improving communication, more acceptance of his own situation and just his overall general improvement, as well as Jon and I actually getting a bit more sleep than we used to do (although we’re still up once or twice every night), we’ve all come a long way.

Consultant Appointments

Harrison continues to have regular reviews with various consultants, including Dr Howard (Poole Hospital) and Dr Monsell (Bristol Hospital).  Dr Howard sees him every 6 months at school and she also talks with his therapists who update her on his general health and physical development.  I always attend these meetings to discuss how Harrison is doing and whether we have any concerns at home that we’d like to address.  For some time now Harrison’s general health has been very good, he no longer has medication for reflux and he only suffers now and again with colds etc.  One of Harrison’s main problems though are his spasms. Harrison's’ form of cerebral palsy mean his limbs constantly spasm so he can go from being very floppy through to very stiff continuously which affects his co-ordination and control to do anything physically.  It also means he is often very uncomfortable and frustrated.  His hips are a major concern as his spasms cause him to scissor his legs which over time can lead to hip dysplasia.  When this happens children like Harrison often face a nasty hip operation to imbed their hips to a normal position, with months of rehabilitation to follow!  We obviously want to delay this operation for a long as possible. 

To help the extreme stiffness that he experiences Harrison has been prescribed medication and since starting this medication he’s has been able to tolerate his standing frame for longer and all of his seating for longer which in turn has meant that his hips position remains stable , holding off the inevitable operation for now, at least!.  This is a key discussion topic at each of his review meetings both with Dr Howard and Dr Monsell and we get his hips x-rayed and analysed every 3 months.

Our trips to Bristol are where his consultant focuses on his hips, spine and overall skeletal alignment and he has had his Botox injections, but these haven’t been without drama. Not only is the visit one where we are often told frightening news, as I’ll mention more later Harrison hates travelling in the car and the 2 hours there and back have been hell each and every time. There was also the time when he fell out of his special buggy walking down a steep hill to the hospital after parking. Falling head first with the seat still attached to him! (the chair seat connects to the wheel base which on this occasion came apart), his head hit the cobbled pavement leaving his forehead, face and nose in a bloody mess. Fortunately a nurse was passing and was able to rush us straight into the children’s A&E department, all of this before we’d even made his appointment!  We managed to make the appointment, although late and Harrison was still able to have his general anaesthetic to have his Botox injections. Suffice to say we park elsewhere now and we always double-check his chair is connected properly!

Wonderful friends

Friends and family support has been very important to us and when Harrison was 3 we met a wonderful lady called Avril. Avril lives locally to us and her and her husband Simon are foster carers to two girls, Vicky aged 26 and Paige aged 19.  Both girls are severely disabled requiring round the clock care, which they get with tons of love on top from both Avril and Simon.  They take the girls around the world on the most amazing holidays and go to tremendous lengths to ensure they both receive all the love and care that they need to lead happy, healthy lives.  You’d think all the effort they put into the girls would leave precious little time for anything else – wrong!  Simon and especially Avril go out of their way to help many families including us.  Avril fell in love with Harrison the instant she met him and offered to help me one day a week.  Her help has been invaluable and Harrison loves spending time with her.  She takes him out in his powerchair and they get up to all sorts, walks around Moors Valley and Poole Park, trips on the beach front train, she even gets him baking.  He has learnt so much and can even say her name.  In fact he talks about Avril (or “Aval” as he calls her) all the time!

Not only is Avril generous with her time she also tries to help the children she knows by funding equipment where possible. One day last year Avril presented Harrison with a walking frame that she found on Ebay. She knew he needed one that securely supported him and kept searching until the right one came up.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I first saw him take steps by himself, something I thought would be impossible as he scissors his legs so much.  He’s so proud of himself when he stands up and moves his legs to walk.  Avril gave me the confidence to let him use his walking frame in Tescos and around Castlepoint shopping centre.  He can’t move very quickly and, if I let him, he cheats by pushing from both feet, plus I have to steer him in the right direction but I can’t express what joy it gives me to see him try so hard whilst sporting a huge beam on his face.  We’ve been so lucky to have Avril in our lives.

We’re also very lucky to have lots of other caring friends around us none more so than Sam and Richard and their daughter Lily.  They kindly look after the boys for the weekend several times a year, so that Jon and I get a break and can spend quality time together.  We’re so grateful, it enables us to recharge our batteries, have some fun and just think about ourselves for a couple of days.  It’s utter bliss but we always miss the boys and are very happy to have them home again, just how it should be.

Daily life improvements

When Harrison was a baby and as a very small boy he really struggled with car journeys and being in the pushchair. Some outings you just have to do, such as hospital appointments, therapy appointments, shopping trips etc, and I would grit my teeth and get on with it whilst Harrison screamed in the car.  I was desperate to take him out on walks like I did when his brother, Reece, was tiny but it was useless he just hated it and it stressed me out listening to him scream, so sadly I avoided it where I could.  Looking back I think Harrison struggled with motion and perhaps was uncomfortable in the car seat or pushchair.

I can’t remember when we turned a corner but we did around the time Harrison had his buggy changed by the Wheelchair Service.  He suddenly didn’t mind a walk and I started to manage walking with him to take his brother to and from school without him crying. Then bit by bit I made our walks longer and started to include a spin around Tescos to pick up something for tea and odds and ends.  I was thrilled and loved my new found freedom to walk with my gorgeous boy.  Now we don’t give it a second thought he comes with me everywhere and quite enjoys the attention from people we meet and he often calls out “ello” as we queue at the till. 

Car journeys are much better as well, possibly because he’s grown up a little and is more interested in the world around him but also because we bought him a much better special needs car seat, suggesting he’s now more comfortable in the car.

A few years ago friends of ours kindly gave Harrison a special needs trike that their son had outgrown.  At the time Harrison was far too small for it so we kept it in our garage and waited for the day when Harrison was big enough to reach the pedals.  In 2012 that day came and we strapped him in and took Harrison on his first bike ride with his brother riding his new bike too.  It was the most brilliant afternoon, no one cared that it was a very cold day we all had so much fun.  Both our boys enjoying their bikes to the max, priceless!  This is now a regular family activity of choice.  They both love cycling through the puddles – what child doesn’t like doing that?

In addition to enjoying his trike, Harrison has recently been taking interest in some of the things I’m doing around the home.  He’s become fascinated with our hoovers, the main one and our hand held one.  If I start to use either of them he shouts at me until I let him have a go.  So for Christmas he received a toy Dyson and his face was a picture when he unwrapped it and realised what it was.  My wonderful niece, Sophie, who adores Harrison, spent all Boxing Day afternoon pushing Harrison around the house whilst he hoovered continuously.  They both had so much fun laughing together. Harrison also loves to help hold my hand mixer when I bake a cake or prepare the batter for pancakes.  Then one day he started shouting “Um” (which his way of saying mum) and looking at something, I thought he was looking out the window.  He kept on and and on but I couldn’t work out what he was meaning.  Then it dawned on me, he wanted to play with my clothes horse!  As soon as I said the words he answered “yeah” very excitedly.  So I pushed his chair as close as I could to the clotheshorse and watched him squeal with delight as he tangled himself up in all the dry washing.  He thoroughly enjoyed himself, so I decided to ask him to drop the items into the basket and with some help he did just that.  He regularly likes help me do this now.  It’s so great that Harrison wants to get involved in these things, like other children do, helping mummy etc, but it doesn’t come without a host of problems.  He can’t do these things independently we have to help him and even then it’s not very easy.  His chair gets in the way or he can’t quite reach, he can’t grasp and release with his hands very well and he often wants to do these things when it’s just not the right time. Further more when we need to finish he screams his head off totally beside himself with disappointment!  Another harsh reminder of how tough life is for him.

Breaks Away

Having a break from your children is so important but equally it’s great to get away as a family.  It’s taken us a few years to try this as Harrison has always found being in the car difficult and he’s not great at night either.  So the thought of driving miles with him screaming, then to be on a flight for a few hours with him being uncomfortable, plus disturbed nights whilst away has always put us off from bothering.  However, this all changed in 2012.  We were told about an organisation called Make a Wish.  They grant one off wishes to children with life threatening or life limiting conditions.  It could be a family trip to Disneyland, to meet a famous person, to swim with dolphins, practically anything.  So we were lucky enough to have our first family holiday paid for, which gave us the chance to try out the travelling experience with Harrison and see how he would respond to flying, a hotter climate, different sleeping arrangements and different food and so on.  We had a few hiccups such as Harrison being violently sick all night over Jon on the first night. I was ready to come home back home straight away! We didn’t sleep at all the night we travelled due to awkward flight times so we would avoid travelling from Gatwick again but all in all, despite Harrison sleeping in one room with Jon and Reece in another with me, our holiday to Ibiza was a huge success and has given us the confidence to travel abroad again and take short breaks within the UK.

We took the boys on a two day trip to Longleat in the February half term of 2013 and stayed on a beautiful farm.  We had a wonderful time and then in the summer school holidays later in the year we had a wonderful trip to LEGOLAND.  Both the boys thoroughly enjoyed themselves once again proving Harrison can now tolerate longer car journeys and different sleeping arrangements.  Next summer we hope to drive midway down the French coast, our biggest challenge to date!

Home Improvements

We moved to our current house in Ferndown when Harrison was still a baby.  We chose it because it had plenty of downstairs space and the potential to accommodate Harrison’s needs as he grew older.  I instantly loved the house, it was light, spacious and vacant!  The only downside was the kitchen, it was very outdated but it didn’t matter.  Four years on in 2012 we decided to tackle the kitchen, extend out and open up the kitchen and joining lounge to create more getting around space for Harrison.  We also decided to improve our downstairs shower room at the same time and turn it into a wet room to shower Harrison in more easily and safely. Wow what a difference all these changes have made to all of us.  We have a gorgeous modern, spacious kitchen with plenty of floor space for Harrison to move between lounge and kitchen.  We now all eat and sit together without the dividing wall between the kitchen and lounge separating us.  It’s a far easier and nicer way to live.  I can’t say the building process was straight forward or fun however, we naturally went over budget and various problems were unearthed as we went along, so it took far longer to complete than predicted but we got there.  Thankfully we had some very welcomed financial input from our local authority going towards the cost of widening access points, knocking through the kitchen to lounge and the non-slip tiles in the shower room as all of these things are to help with Harrison’s special needs.  Our builders too were helpful and great chaps to have around but everyone involved were immensely pleased to finally have it all completed.

School

One of the happiest days of my life was the day we received a phone call from our Early Years department saying that Harrison had been given a place be at Victoria school. Choosing a school for any child is an important process and normally fairly straight forward, with most children going to their school of choice locally to where they live.  When your child has complex needs it a totally different ball game.  In the Bournemouth area we are lucky enough to have quite a number of special needs schools, however not all of these schools would necessarily be right for Harrison.  I took it upon myself to research each and every one of these schools and I visited them and spoke to head teachers and various members of staff.  In the end one stood out head and shoulders above the rest as being the perfect match for Harrison’s needs, this school of course is Victoria school.  That’s not to say that the others weren’t good enough it’s just that many of the children were able bodied and therefore not in wheelchairs.  I felt Harrison needed to be in a school where the majority of children who, like him, are in wheelchairs learning to cope with severe physical problems.  Harrison has always struggled to tolerate his seating and to accept that he can’t always be on our laps and so it’s important for him to be surrounded by other children doing activities in chairs and to realise life in a wheelchair can be fun, something unfortunately he has to get used to.

Harrison started his first day at school in January 2011, he was just 3 years old.  I drove him there, and talked to him all the way to help prepare him for me to leave him (and prepare me for leaving him too!).  His teacher, Gill, asked me not to come into the classroom as they find it easier to settle children in this way.  Of course he cried and I sobbed all the way home but I knew it was the start of great things to come for him and us. 

He began by attending Tuesdays and Fridays for the first few months then he was asked to go on Wednesday mornings so he could attend the weekly hydro therapy session with his class mates.  Within a couple of weeks I had to arrange for the school bus to take him and bring him home each day as his brother, Reece, was starting school too and I couldn’t be in two places at once! I thought he would hate being collected from home but in fact he took to it very quickly.  The driver and personal assistant are great with the children, just as long as Harrison has his dummy for the journey home he seems to behave very well!

Gradually Harrison learned to relax more around the children and staff at school and has built a close bond with Gill.  His crying has subsided after the teachers introduced discipline techniques and he now enjoys all his therapy sessions which include physiotherapy, speech and language, Occupational therapy, rebound therapy (trampoline session) and PE.

At the start of the new school year this September Harrison became school age and so now attends every day. It seems the more he goes to school the better adjusted he’s become. He’s grown up and developed beyond recognition.  His communication skills particularly are much improved.  Not only has he added many words to his vocabulary he also signs or indicates what he means.  For example if he wants to eat he says “Um” or “Addy” to get my or daddy’s attention then points to his mouth.  He’ll say “No more” when he’s had enough and uses eye pointing to indicate what he wants.  We are constantly bowled over by his understanding and methods of communication however we still experience regular screaming fits because of his frustration and/or little boy paddies if he can’t have what he wants!  Of course he can’t argue or verbally disagree with us so he just screams!  Somehow though these episodes are quickly forgotten, no matter how ear piercing they are, when he cracks a smile, does something clever and/or mischievous or has the fit of the giggles when his brother does something funny.  They do have such a fantastic bond it’s wonderful to watch them.

One of my proudest moments to date has to be watching him receive not one but two achievement awards from school on December 13, 2013 during the school’s annual achievements award assembly. The first was the Early Years Foundation Skills Award for his positive approach to learning and for his great sense of humour.  The second was the Physiotherapy Award for his overall improvement and trying his best in all sessions.  Quite a turn around when I think back to his relentless screaming every time I took to physio as a baby!  He really has come such a long way in five years and I’m overwhelmed with pride.  I wonder where we’ll be and what he’s be doing in the next 5 years, I can’t wait to find out.  Go get ‘em tiger!

And finally

Upon reflection, we are a million miles from the desperate darks days of Harrison as a baby.  We see improvements in him all the time and can imagine a happy future for him.  He’s a bright, happy, cheeky little boy with bags of determination.  He’ll always be limited physically but we’ve learnt to look forwards with optimism rather than fear.  Who knows if he’ll live independently as an adult, that’s too difficult to predict but if he continues to grow and develop at the rates he has over the last 5 years we’ve every reason to be excited about his future.

Watch this space for the next instalment about Harrison’s development.  Thank you for reading, Jo xx

This year we've set ourselves a challenging fund raising target of £5,000 - and Jon and I are running a 'Tough Mudder' race on 27 April in order to try and achieve this.

So why £5,000 you might ask?

With not being able to walk, Harrison is completely wheelchair bound (you can see him in his current chair in the photo above with his older brother Reece at the football) but it’s now becoming an essential requirement for him and us to get a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle (WAV) in order to make life better. One main reason for this is that he's now out growing his collapsable wheelchair (seen in the picture) and will therefore need be in one that he'll stay in when travelling very soon. Furthermore it's about his dignity. Harrison is now 5 and he just doesn't want to be carried in and out of the car each and every time - what 5 year old would!

Unfortunately a WAV is one of things we can obtain little financial grant or support towards and typically, the cost of what we require is far more than any normal family car or vehicle, so the amount we're looking to raise will simply go some way towards it.

With so many kind friends and family having raising money for Harrison's Fund over the last year or so, some are even doing so as we speak helping us towards this target.....Jon and I thought it now time to step up to the plate ourselves.

For those that might not know, a ‘Tough Mudder’ is a 12-mile run (so almost a half marathon!), which also involves mud, hills, swamps, ice, electric shocks, monkey bars and all sorts of other obstacles along the way too (about 30 in all)!!!! Described as a 'hardcore 12 mile-long obstacle course designed by the Special Forces to test your all around strength, stamina, mental grit, and camaraderie', to say it’s ‘tough’ is an under statement!

We've both always training one way or another but its hard to know quite how to train for an event like this, but you can keep up to date with how we're doing via his Facebook page - www.facebook.com/harrisonstrustfund 

Despite how hard its going be, we're actually looking forward to it, knowing we'll be helping our little man. Getting a WAV is now essential, as well as help accomodate all his other equipment we need giving him the choice and enabling us to get out and about, such as his tricyle, walking frame and whatever else he may require as he grows up...and we musn't forget Reece's and his bike too of course!

We set Harrison's Trust Fund up as an on-going fund in order to provide whatever Harrison might need and to ensure he lives as normal life as possible as he grow into a teenager and then into his adult years. It’s mainly for his long term future but its also for equipment we find he requires as we go along such as in this case.

Every penny really does count so as we run through the mud, swamps and ice, climb up, over and through obstacles and get electric shocks along the way, if you can help us reach our £5,000 goal it'll all be worth it and more - please give what you can for Harrison......we will be so grateful.

You can donate easily through PayPal on this site via http://www.harrisonstrustfund.co.uk/donate.php or alternatively email us at info@harrisontrustfund.co.uk if you would like to donate via another way (we can give the Trust details to transfer online for example, which in some ways we prefer since Paypal takes a cut of every donation we get!!).

Thank you for all your support and we'll let you know how we do.

P.s. please feel free to look around Harrison's website and see some lovely photos of him in the Gallery section as well as my latest article on his progress now he's 5 years old!

Jo and Jon xx

So we did it!!!! And since so many have asked to know more, here’s a little bit about how it all went…….

So we (Harrison's Mum and Dad) ran the Tough Mudder London West on Sunday 27 April 2014 raising money towards the challenging £5,000 target we set for the year.

Quite frankly and with having now completed it, to call it 'Tough' is an absolute understatement but we wanted to do something which was as equally challenging and testing for us, as every day clearly is for Harrison – and knowing that a Tough Mudder is ‘probably one the hardest and most challenging events on the planet’ as they quote, it didn't disappoint. Even now days on we're both still aching and have the bruises to show for it!

We actually decided to enter back in August 2013 assuming a course that included water and ice related obstacles wouldn’t be too bad in the warmth of April. How wrong could we be? The weather in the build up hadn’t been good and the forecast for the day was much the same. We woke up to torrential rain and it certainly wasn’t warm! But then challenging was what we wanted, so I suppose the wetter and colder the better!?

We were fortunate to not have the kids the night beforehand with some friends kindly looking after them both (a rare occurrence I can tell you, thank you so much Sam and Rich) so we both got a decent night sleep for once. We got up nice and early for the 2-hour drive in order to give time to register but what we saw as we approached was nothing short of a mud bath. We managed to park up, register, got ready to run and with the adrenalin kicking in, I had just enough time to get my hair sprayed red (I've no idea why either but it seemed the thing to do at the time with the madness of the event and there were people offering to do it – Jo didn’t!).

With literally thousands entering, (on Saturday as well as Sunday) participants were booked into waves setting off every 20 minutes - our start time was 11.20. Lots of music, shouting and smoke prompted our wave to start...and then that was it, no turning back!

What we then came up against was simply the most amount of mud we've ever seen in our life, really, words cannot explain the amount or depth of it! Ironically one of the obstacles was called the 'Mile of Mud'. Well we'd love to know where it was on the course as its fair to say there was actually 12 miles of mud!

The first obstacle was jumping over some large haystacks, easy...but then that was the end of ‘easy’...the next having us crawling through the mud with barbed wire inches above us...and this was where the first injury occurred with Jo getting a 5" long cut on her back from catching on one of the barbs.... but she only noticed at the end with the adrenalin disguising whatever pain she should have felt.

Next was 'Artic Enema', a storage crate (as in those used on ships) full of ice cubes and water up to our chests. It had a row of tyres submerged across it at the middle that you then had to swim under. I went first but with the shock of the cold as I submerged my head, I inhaled under water swallowing loads of the dirty muddy cold water. It wasn’t nice at all and god knows what I swallowed but we went onto the next.... now feeling incredibly cold.

We then continued to run through the mud, mile after mile of it, with the rest of the obstacles ahead of us.

As well as obstacles having us crawling through muddy water with electric wires dangling inches above giving you 10.000 volts of electric shock, there were various strength related obstacles such as 12 ft. walls to rope climb up, over and down, 10ft walls to climb over and down (without a rope) and one carrying a heavy log around a muddy uphill 100 metre loop. There was then the monkey bars and then the rings, which both being over water were inevitably spaced far enough apart to make them almost impossible to do so you guessed it, we both ended up in the water up to our chest.

Other water related obstacles included the claustrophobic 'Cage Crawl' where we had to pull ourselves through water on our backs with our heads in the water, but with a metal cage inches above from our face. Jo did so well to overcome her fear of having her head in the water...although she didn't manage 'Walk the Plank', a jump off into very deep water from a platform 12 ft. up and then a frantic swim to safety. It looked nothing from the side although even I had 2nd thoughts when at the top.... but there was no going back so just jumped into the cold water and it was brilliant!

Whilst the event wasn’t about what time you do it in and whilst most were walking though the mud from obstacle to obstacle, we had both said beforehand how determined we were to run as much of it as we could. We're proud to say that we did just that, catching runners up that had started in various waves before us.... although this and the cold water took its toll, certainly on my muscles in my legs. At the mile 8 mark I started to get cramp throughout my legs. This was definitely where my thoughts led back to why we were doing it, Harrison and his problems, so we both ploughed on for the final 4 miles.

The final few obstacles came and went, more miles of mud were run and slipped through, up and down. We then finally reached 'Everest', a massive slicked-up quarter-pipe ramp, which bearing in mind was at the very end, we still had to find the strength and energy to try and run and pull ourselves up (fortunately with the help of others already at the top dragging us up).

Due to the queue and with many people taking lots of attempts to get up the Everest obstacle we had to wait about 10 minutes for our turn. Being so wet meant we just got colder and colder and by the time we actually finished Jo’s teeth and body were shaking uncontrollably, so much so she could hardly hold the pint of ginger beer we were given upon finishing. But this wasn’t before ‘Electroshock Therapy’ for some final electric shocks…..and then we were finished, cold and exhausted!!

So to reflect…. We’d climbed Everest, completed all the obstacles, receieved electric shocks and ran all the way in relentless mud, up and down hills, getting colder and colder along the course. It hurt, a lot, but was loads of fun...and we are now both in the possession of the prized orange ‘Tough Mudder’ headband to prove it.

We have the photos too, so please take a look here in the gallery and you can also have a laugh at us caked in mud.

But more importantly it was so worth it. We have personally raised over £1,500 so far and along with contributions from other fund raising, we are now approaching the £2.5k mark. So we are remarkably half way towards out £5K target, which is amazing.

But we've therefore still got a long way to go so this is the grovelling bit…where if you've waited or just haven't got around to it yet, we'll be so grateful for any support and further contribution you can make towards our target. You can ask us for details to transfer money directly into the Trust Fund (which doesn’t take a cut of your donation) or donate via PayPal through this site at http://www.harrisonstrustfund.co.uk/donate.php (but which does take a cut!)

Thank you so much for reading and supporting us, its meant so much and if you’re asking yourself if we’ll do another Tough Mudder….you’ll just have to watch this space!

Thank you Jon and Jo xx

With life being so busy we haven't posted for a while so we thought it was about time we updated you all on our £5,000 target but more importantly we have a number of thank you's to make to some very special people.

Firstly we'd like to offer a massive thanks to all the employees at Inoplas Technology in Ferndown. Christian Rodiger contacted us completely out of the blue after a colleague of his (Sue) has seen one of our articles in the local paper about our fundraising and she suggested they could help. With Christian already entered to run in the local Ox marathon, colleagues Julita and Steve in the Ox half marathon, Sue decided to shave all her hair off (!!) and others made and bought cakes to contribute to a large cake sale......and with everything being organised and co-ordinated by Allison they raised £582 (which included an incredibly generous donation from their boss Jon). With none of them actually knowing us or Harrison, it makes this effort even more special to us so thank you everyone. 

We'd also like to thank the hairdressers where we take the boys, Huttons Hair Design and all their customers. Since we announced our fund raising target earlier this year they've had a poster up about it along with a donation tin at reception. They has now raised in the region of £150 which is just awesome...so thank you guys.

In our last post on Harrison's Facebook page we mentioned Darren's 'Trek for Harrison', a completely self sufficient 76 mile hike he was doing across Exmoor National Park. Darren is still collecting sponsorship money but we want to thank him and we're pleased to say that he survived and had an unbelievable yet gruelling time. Well done and thanks Darren!

We've previously mentioned the continuous support we've had from the members at Queens Park Golf Club. On our behalf Club President Bob Wood recently contacted a local charity, The Hadland Foundation and they've given us a cheque for £200 towards our target, so a massive thanks to both them and Bob.

And last for now, incredibly just as we've been writing this blog this evening we've been contacted, again out of the blue, by the owner of The Chapel in the Valley Pre School in Corfe Mullen. Every week they have something in their treasure box and they put in a copy of the Wimborne Advertiser and read the children some news. They saw one of the articles about Harrison and the children seemed to show an empathy and understanding of Harrison's story so they decided to do a sponsored walk for him, astonishingly raising over £600 so far!

Finally and whilst we're not too sure on the total amount, with all this amazing support we're delighted to say that we're pretty sure we've reached the £5,000 target we set ourselves this year. We never really thought we'd make it to be honest but we've been blown away by all the remarkable people that have supported us and helped Harrison and so we'd like to thank you all once again.

Suffice to say though, we're not stopping here!

Whilst we set £5,000 as a target towards getting a suitable vehicle for Harrison to travel in, the Trust Fund was always set up to help him on an ongoing basis, into his teens and even adulthood....and when you think we might have to be getting him a specially adapted power wheelchair soon which he can steer using his head and will cost in the region of £8-10,000......no, we're not stopping and will continue to do all we can for him.

So could we reach £10,000 maybe? A tall ask but knowing some of the things that are still planned by some other extraordinary people, who knows!!!

Watch this space and if you've got any ideas we'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for reading....Jon and Jo x

We haven’t written a blog for a while now but with some amazing news to tell you all, we thought it an opportune time…but let us tell you more before we divulge all!

At the start of the year you’ll remember we realized it was the time to purchase a Wheelchair Adapted and Accessible Vehicle (WAV) for Harrison. With him getting older and too heavy and awkward for us to lift in and out of the car every time, and him finding the whole process a nightmare as well, it was simply becoming essential.

So as his parents, we decided to start fund raising by entering a Tough Mudder event, hoping to raise an amount that would contribute towards the overall cost of the WAV because they really don’t come cheap, certainly not the type and size we felt we needed and would be suitable for both Harrison's needs but to also accommodate ours as a family. We set £5,000 as a target, not knowing if we could achieve it but we had to start somewhere.

We really didn’t know where to start or what we needed though and soon realised there were so many other options to think about compared to buying a normal car. Normal decisions might just be about the make, colour and engine size for example and you can then get exactly what you want if buying new but nowadays with the likes of AutoTrader and with so many used cars available, this is also tends to be true even when buying 2^nd hand, saving money of course.

The options we were having to consider, however, were based around the adaption and accessibility for Harrison and his chair…such as whether the lift should be at the side or the back, whether the floor should be lowered or not, how the chair would be secured and so on. These weren’t made any easier since there were pros and cons for all them, and we just didn’t know the answers…we were going round in circles on what would be best and with having no experience on any of it!

We found some companies that specialised in WAV adaptions and they started to help us but they only provided brand new vehicles and these would cost in excess of £40,000, so certainly more than the £5,000 we initially set out to raise!

So we realised we would need to buy 2^nd hand. Yet after now answering some of the questions we had about the adaption and our requirements, we discovered that there is only ever a hand full of suitable used WAVs on the market at any time…and they can still be really expensive.

To save money we even looked into the option of buying one of the demonstrator models one of the companies brought to show us but as with all demos, it was a bit tatty and just wasn’t quite right and would’ve still cost over £25,000!!! Spending that sort of money still and not being happy with what we’d got was not what this was all about.

So as you can see it was a difficult process, trying to ensure all the important boxes were ticked and that we were wisely spending the money that you have all kindly raised, obtaining a vehicle that would last us for many years rather than buying something that wasn’t quire right or might cause us lots of problems.

But a couple of weeks ago we did another quick search online as we hadn’t for a while. Almost straight away we found something that seemed to tick all the boxes. As soon as we saw it and how it was adapted, and bearing in mind all our previous investigating, we were in a position to knew it was just what we were after. So 11 months after starting the process all of a sudden……

……..WE’VE FINALLY BEEN ABLE TO GET A WAV FOR HARRISON!!!!!!

We got it last Monday and you should have seen Harrison’s face when he saw it. He was so excited and was bouncing about so much he about he nearly fell out of his wheelchair; he clearly knew what it meant straight away.

So with all your help we reached our £5,000 target and more. Whether its by donating, bidding on an item or getting others to sponsor you running, walking, climbing through mud and ice, cycling, iron manning, swimming or getting electrocuted for Harrison, we want to thank you all from the very bottom of our hearts as we now have the WAV that we need to get out and about as a family and to make Harrison’s life easier. Its made an incredible difference already, only after having it for one week!

But as you might imagine, things don’t stop here. With the Trust Fund actually set up to help him continuously and into adulthood, there are always things he’ll need now and in the future.

You only have to think about the £3,000 we’ve needed to buy his power wheelchair with the head steering system as well this year…or the £1,500 for a bigger tricycle so he join his older brother Reece on our walks (which he’ll be getting for Xmas so watch this space) to demonstrate this…and next it will be a new sleeping system to help him sleep and various communication aids for example.

But for now and with all your incredible help, we’ve actually achieved what we set out to this year, which is just amazing and we just can’t thank you all enough.

We hope you like the photo of Harrison in his chair and looking very pleased with himself up in the air on the WAV lift, and here is a link to some more pics we've taken - http://harrisonstrustfund.co.uk/gallery/album.php?s=mission-accomplished-and-a-massive-thanks-to-you-all-gallery

THANK YOU EVERYONE….FROM HARRISON XXX (and his mum and dad xxxx)