A dad-of-two is planning to cycle 400 miles across the Scottish Highlands with hopes to raise money for a children’s hospital.
Tom Golding, a teacher from Sidcup, will be riding for 400 miles across five days, to raise money for Evelina Children’s Hospital.
He will be tackling the challenge alongside seven riders and two support drivers between July 25 and 29.
Tom and his wife Becky hold Evelina Children’s Hospital close to their heart, as both their two young children, Isabelle and William, have needed frequent care from the hospital.
Tom told the News Shopper: “Our daughter Isabelle was born in April 2018 with a rare and life-threatening birth defect that no one knew about.
“During her development, her food pipe mistakenly connected to her airway instead of to her stomach.
“At a day old, she was rushed to the paediatric intensive care unit at Evelina London Children's Hospital, where she had emergency surgery the next day.
“Six days later she was moved to a ward for two weeks and she was then in and out of hospital off and on for another eight weeks.
“She was admitted to hospital a total of 16 times in the first year and has had to have a feeding tube (PEG) placed in her stomach to help her get enough calories and fluid.”
Tom and Becky soon had their second child, William, who too had to be transferred to Evelina Children’s Hospital at just two days old.
Tom explained: “William stopped breathing twice whilst in hospital and he was struggling to keep any fluid down without vomiting.
“William spent a total of three months in the Evelina, where multiple tests were carried out before finding that he had too had a problem with his swallow.
“Once William was well enough, he was able to come home but with two tubes in his nose- one to his stomach for medication, and the second to his small intestine, to provide milk constantly over a 16-hour period via a pump.
“At nine months old after a month back at Evelina, where more tests were carried out, it was established that William would also need a PEG.
“William is 2 1/2 now and despite multiple attempts to wean him onto thickened fluid with our community teams, he is still unfortunately nil by mouth for fluid, and so he is awaiting further investigation.”
Tom says that both his children will be monitored under Evelina Hospital until they’re both 18 years old.
“It’s the little things we think about” Tom says, as he explains both children can’t take part in child-like activities, such as going swimming or eating ice cream.
Tom added: “You know, they've both got buttons for their fluid that go straight into the stomach.
“They enjoy playing and doing everything a normal kid does dirty everything that a normal kid does.
“But just when it comes to this, they’re worlds apart.”
Due to the constant care and kindness from Evelina Hospital, Tom and Becky want to raise money to try and give back to the hospital.
This year, Tom and his friends will be riding 400 miles around the Scottish Highlands, with climbing elevation goals of 18,000 feet.
Tom explained: “This year, the same people and a couple of extra people have now decided to join me on another bike ride summer to do 400 miles around the islands.
“We’ve been training over the last few weeks, last week we carried out 70 Miles and we’ll be doing 100 miles in the New Forest at the end of May.”
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