Look everyone Dad has joined in as well!!! Team Attridge is complete!!! Hi Everyone – a note from Mummy A.

It’s that time of year – yes the annual St. Baldricks event where lots of people shave their heads to raise money for childhood cancer research. We have emailed you on behalf of William twice in the past and you generously donated to this worthy cause. This year is a little bit different in that we are signing up to raise money in the name of ‘Team Attridge’. So William, Thomas and myself (yes that’s right!!) will be shaving our heads. I will also be donating my hair to locks of love.
There is motivation for this besides it being a worthy cause. Some of you may know and some not, that Thomas was diagnosed with PFAPA or Periodic Fever Syndrome over the summer. Basically what this means is that for the last year and a half, he was getting high fevers all of the time – like every couple of weeks – which lasted for days. It was baffling as he had no other symptoms and went back to full health in between fevers. So off we went to Boston to see what we could find out. Boy was that an eye-opening experience for me!! Filled with nerves and fear of the unknown, we walked in to the sight of bustling activity, people everywhere, a ton of signs to all the different departments and once I was able to focus, it became clear that a lot of the people were children, many of them visibly sick in some way. From the parents sleeping on the leather couch in the tv area to all the kids, sick and healthy, bouncing up and down the ‘musical’ stair case – it stirred up a considerable amount of mixed emotion.
We are the lucky ones I am happy to say. We’ve encountered a ‘hiccup’ in our journey not a speedbump or roadblock that others are facing. It’s not cancer or Lupus or one of the really bad ones out there but they don’t know what causes it and highlights the need for charities like this to do research on these childhood illnesses. For Thomas, we know it is not life-threatening and he should grow out of it over time. It is managed so he can go about life with very little interruption now and he still comes back to 100% health in between fevers. So many kids who have these over-active immune system types of illnesses never do.
So often I look at the boys as they grow, learn, achieve and just be and the love I feel for them just takes my breath away, brings tears to my eyes. I wouldn’t know what to do without them, let alone know how to face the challenges so many others have to face every day but I’d do anything I could for them. Hence my decision to do this along with the boys.
The boys are excited and it’s a worthwhile cause so we’d appreciate any support you can give.
Thanks so much
Kirsty