On 4 December 2011, Jennifer Dackombe, our Investment Analyst, gave birth to her first son, Harrison. He was born some 12 weeks premature and spent the first months of his life in the Neonatal Unit of King’s College Hospital in London. Fortunately, Harrison was a fighter and, after 70 days, he was allowed home.
In order to express the family’s appreciation for the fantastic support they received from the team at the hospital, and to celebrate Harrison turning 10 years old, Jen and Harrison decided to complete 70 laps of Kenley Aerodrome, their local cycling spot, in order to raise funds for the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where Harrison spent his early days. This culminated in a final set of laps on 11 June, when they were joined by friends and family who were either simply supporting them or were raising sponsorship themselves.
The result of all this hard work was that nearly £6,500 was raised for the hospital, a fantastic achievement that will help support babies born prematurely, like Harrison, and their parents in what is the most difficult of times. Congratulations to everyone involved, but especially Jen and Harrison. Should you still wish to donate to a very worthy cause, the Just Giving page will be live until the end of the year and can be found here.
Whilst Harrison had the idea for Just Do 70 last year, raising the sponsorship money coincided with the war in Ukraine, and Jen and Harrison considered splitting the monies raised between King’s College Hospital and a suitable charity that would support children and babies in Ukraine. However, as that would reduce the amount going to the hospital, they were torn. In order to solve the problem, we offered to donate 50% of any sum raised to Save the Children’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal, allowing Jen and Harrison to stick to the cause closest to their heart whilst acknowledging the terrible events happening in Ukraine. As a result, the total raised for charity is nearer £10,000, an achievement of which they should be rightly proud.
