Dylan's Dad's Ride

What?!
 I - and at least one other - will be cycling from Manchester to Bristol in order to raise money for two of the charities that have helped enormously when Dylan was born.  These are Ronald McDonald House (Bristol) and CDH UK.  The reason for this particular journey is that this is the journey taken by us after the Mother's waters broke in Manchester two weeks earlier than her planned induction in Bristol. 

When
Weekend of the 8th Spetember 2012.

The Charities

The Ronald McDonald House Bristol ( http://www.rmhbristol.com/ )  is an independent charity which provides support and Home from Home accommodation, free of charge, to the families of critically ill children receiving care at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children and St Michaels Hospital.  It opened its doors in November 2002 and accommodates over 600 families each year.  The house comprises of twenty one en suite bedrooms, three fully equipped kitchens, a dining room, a laundry room, two lounges, and a beautifully landscaped garden.  Running costs of £170,000.00 per year and a really small team of staff.  We were lucky enough to be able to stay here for the five weeks that Dylan was in NICU at St Michaels Hospital.

CDH UK  (http://cdhuk.co.uk )  was founded and registered with the Charity Commission in 2003

It was initially formed as a small support group, now its aims are

• To support families and their babies and children as effectively as we can
• To offer information, advice and news on all aspects of CDH
• To raise awareness of CDH and to educate the general public and medical profession
• To contribute where possible, and further study and research into better management and treatment of CDH and to assist in finding the cause and prevention of CDH

We have found them an extremely useful source of information and support from the time that Dylan was diagnosed (November 2011) up until the present day.  Whilst CDH is as common as Cystic Fibrosis (1 in 2500), there appears to be a lack of awareness and that there are procedures available that may increase child survival rate in severe cases.



The Route
The route of the sponsored ride has been defined.  The route is a total of about 170 miles spread over two days.  The overnight stop will be in Coalport rather than Bridgenorth.  Although Bridgenorth would have been preferred because of the strong links with the Mother's side of the family all their accomodation seems to have been taken. This may have something to do with the food festival in Ludlow that weekend. The split is roughly 67 miles the first day and 105 the second but more climbing on the first day.  There'll be two drinks\food stops each day.

Each days route can be found in more detail using the following links.

Garmin Connect - CDH Ride Day 1 
Garmin Connect - CDH Ride Day 2
So far there are two definites (including me) and a few maybes as well as a few volunteer support crew ...



Sponsorship
We have two charity pages ( one for each charity) for sponsorship.  These are:

www.mycharitypage.com/dylanjones (for CDH UK)

www.justgiving.com/dylanhenryjones (for Ronald McDonald House (Bristol))

Dylan at birth

With the support we have received from CDH UK and Ronald McDonald House (Bristol) as well as the superb work from the maternity unit and the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St Michaels Hospital in Bristol along with medical care from Somerset NICU at Musgrove Park in Taunton and antenatal procedures at Kings College Hospital London we went from the top photo (Dylan getting paralysed, sedated and intubated at birth) to the bottom photo (Dylan tube and drug free) 5 months later.  The offering of sacrificial goats and chickens and prayers\thoughts from a vast collection of friends and family all helped too.

Dylan says "Thank you for all your support"