My Busy Weekend

I had a lovely weekend (pictures to follow) with Oli and Emily from Live Life Then Give Life!

Emily arrived around 12.30 on Saturday and we spent the afternoon chatting and watched Fridays Battlefront programme! We managed to get "some" work done and the rest of the afternoon was spent playing with my nice or rather watching her run around with her walker (her new party trick)! Emily bought me a gorgeous bracelet (pink of course) for my birthday and her sister Abby bought me a lovely necklace that matches perfectly!

Oli arrived around 5pm with a bottle of wine and flowers in hand for my folks, that went down well and he immediately got an invitation to come back again!!! We did some filming for the LLTGL website about my story, LLTGL and Battlefront! We had a laugh sitting on the grass and chatting, it was a lot less stressful than the filming for the Battlefront Documentary! We finished filming and Emily snuck off upstairs and came back down with her hands behind her back, her and Oli had been chatting in secret code and I had no idea what was going on, she handed me a little box and to my surprise when I opened it... it was a stunning silver necklace with two hearts on it (a big one with a little one dangling on top) on the back of the big heart were the engraved letters LLTGL! I almost cried, I wasn't expecting it at all, it was from all the trustees of the charity for the work I have been doing with Battlefront! Just want to say thank you to them all, I didn't do any of it for a reward, but because I feel so passionate about raising awareness of Organ Donation! I have promised I will wear it to every LLTGL event I attend...

After that we went out for a lovely dinner, everyone enjoyed the carvery and then we had dessert! Jelly and Ice-cream for me and Em, very grown up! We came home and spent the evening chatting, cringing at eurovision and making plans for the following day!

The following day started quite early, we arrived in Manchester around 9.30, this was for the BUPA Great Manchester Run, which Team Ethan were running in aid of Live Life Then Give Life in memory of baby Ethan Collins who lost his fight earlier this month after complications following his liver and bowel transplant. We were there to cheer the whole team on, and to film the event for the website. Ethan's Dad, Stu - despite his grief lead the team round the course and managed to record a time of 65minutes for the 10K run!

We left Manchester (in the pouring rain) and headed back to mine in Warrington for a spot of lunch before leaving again for the evening event in Bolton. This was a fundraising auction consisting of concert tickets, signed memorabilia and theme park tickets etc... The turnout was amazing and the whole evening was so inspirational! The total raised was almost £6000 pounds (with some money still to come in) through their justgiving page for the run and through the auction and raffles at the evening event. Ethan's family are lovely and so strong. To read LLTGL's account of the day with some pictures click here!

A special touch to the evening was a balloon release we wrote messages on them and watched them float up into the sky, an emotional moment for everyone, especially Ethan's parents...

My message read;

"We never met you, but you made a huge impact on us all. A true inspiration! R.I.P Mr Brave. Lots of Love the LLTGL advocates x"

A truly inspirational evening... and a truly inspirational family...