Meet Francesca
A children’s nurse biking to raise awareness and funds for seriously ill children and their families
Hey, I’m Francesca!
I’ve been a children’s nurse in the NHS for over 9 years, working at Evelina London Children’s Hospital and University College London Hospitals, before moving into the children’s hospice sector.
I was amazed to learn that children’s hospices, providing such vital care, rely on approximately 83% charity funding to do their work.
Working for Rennie Grove Hospice Care and Helen House Children’s Hospice I became even more aware of how important this work was, especially in my role of caring for children at home.
Seeing first hand what families experience managing the needs of a sick child alongside family life and the challenges and barriers they face made me determined to be a voice for families caring for a seriously ill child.
But how?!
Whilst I’ve done a lot of running events to raise money for charity in the past, and played an active role in raising awareness for the charities I’ve worked for, raising awareness nationally for the many different children's hospice charities felt like a much harder challenge.
Then along came Ben Fogle…!
What’s Your Everest?
‘Find your Everest’ he said.
Inspired by a talk by Ben Fogle I started thinking more about my Everest. What was something active, that may not have been done before, that raises money and awareness for something I care passionately about?
I love running. I am passionate about my work as a children’s hospice nurse. I love bringing people together and working as a team.
So what about something that incorporated every children’s hospice in the UK?
Running would take too long and take me away from the job I love and the work I am passionate about promoting. So a new idea was born.
To cycle around every children’s hospice in the U.K. Which is made all the more of an Everest by the fact I didn’t have a bike and couldn’t officially say I can cycle.
And so the adventure begins.
Will you join me?
