Mums’ Marathon Walk Home Raised £2,304 As Double Thank You

Two grateful mums who walked over 47km from Birmingham to Warwick raised over £2,300 for us, as thanks for the life-saving care received by both of their children.

Best friends Kirsty White and Jenny Scott, who are both teachers, pulled on their walking boots to tackle the distance in a symbolic trek along the canals from our hospital to represent the journey they had both endured to get their kids, Margot (seven) and Kit (six), home from hospital.

Kirsty’s daughter, Margot, suffered two episodes of serious pneumonia, once at 15-months-old, and another when she was three. On the first occasion, Margot was admitted to our hospital, where she underwent emergency surgery on her lungs, followed by a further six weeks of treatment and drains. Thankfully, Margot made a full recovery but a year and a half later, she caught Strep A which left her in intensive care for eight days at another hospital. Four weeks after her admission, Margot was transferred back to our hospital for more specialist care. Thankfully four weeks later, Margot was fit enough to return home and now aged seven, her time in hospital is a distant memory.

Jenny’s son, Kit, has been a patient at our hospital since 2018, when he was born with a complex combination of heart defects called Tetralogy of Fallot. Kit’s condition was diagnosed during a scan while Jenny was pregnant, so she always knew Kit would need to undergo surgery to correct his heart at five-months-old but his heart was much worse than the scans showed and struggled to work following the operation. Despite the surgeons’ best efforts, Kit rapidly went downhill and was put onto ECMO, a type of life-support which took over the work of his heart and lungs for three days to give his heart time to recover. Kit went on to have multiple further surgeries and procedures and his recovery wasn’t easy but five years on, Kit is thriving and has just finished his reception year at school.

Kirsty and Jenny shared the toughest moments in their lives so it only felt right that they should share in giving back to the hospital that saved their children’s lives. After months of training and building themselves up to walk the distance, Kirsty and Jenny set off on their 10-hour journey home from our hospital.

After a long day’s walk peppered with pick-me-ups such as Margot and Kit joining their mums for a few kilometres and tasty picnics, Kirsty and Jenny were welcomed home by a crowd of friends, having clocked over 64,000 steps along the way.

Kirsty said: “Jenny and I will never be able to express just how grateful we are for everything the brilliant team at Birmingham Children’s Hospital did for Margot and Kit but fundraising to give back and help other families seems like a good start!”

Jenny added: “45km is a long way to walk and we started to feel it about half-way but we powered on and reminded ourselves it was nothing compared to the journeys we have been on with our children. We’re so proud of how much we managed to raise to say thank you for their care.”

Annie Eytle, Head of Public Fundraising at Birmingham Children’s Hospital Charity, said: “Kirsty and Jenny really went the extra mile for our charity and we couldn’t be more grateful for the fantastic funds they raised along the way.

“The wonderful funds raised will go towards helping us do more for the 100,000 sick kids our hospital treats every single year – kids like Margot and Kit.”