Leaps And Bounds

Hello all,

We have pictures! Seeing Charlotte over the weekend was fantastic! She is doing so so so well!! We went out almost everyday and Charlotte could tolerate being in her wheelchair for roughly 2-3 hours each time. It was amazing to her sitting next to us in restaurants, she has been trying so hard and she's making incerdible progress.

She know has a laptop that will hopefully be hooked up to the net very soon so she'll be able to read this blog herself! And even write stuff on it about how she's doing. She is enjoying her food, especially slush puppies!

At the moment she is still in in high dependancy on the intensive care ward, but this is only because the haemodialysis(or however you spell it!!) can only be done on this ward. She is having a trial run at another type of dialysis that will allow her to move to another, more sociable ward, on Thursday so we'll see how that goes! She is working hard at her exercises, and now that she's eating loads she is getting stronger and feeling better.

Here are the latest photo's ( i still have to get the ones from my birthday meal developed, but they should be back by the end of the week)

BROOMFIELD






Charlotte and Mya




Charlotte with a 'red slushy-puppy' tongue




Charlotte wants lots of visitors!!! So if you want to see her go now! She's in great spirits and is bored :) email me if you need to know which ward to go to

Thanks!

xXx

THANK YOU BROOMFIELD!

I'm sorry this has been a bit late in coming, but we all want to say a massive

THANK YOU

to all the staff at Broomfield who put up with our sleepy, irritated states and constant questions and most importantly, were such a support to Charlotte! She absolutely adored every single one of you and always talks about you and says she misses you. As we all do! We look forward to the day that we can all come back when Charlotte is up and walking and feeling fantastic!

We couldn't have hoped for a more friendly and supportive group of professionals to help us all get through such a horrible time. We will be eternally grateful to you all!

All our love Sophie, Jayne, Rachel and Charlotte

xXx

The latest update

Hello all,

Firstly, the Handy Helpers, Steven and James Smith from Chiswick who have been raising money for Charlotte by doing 'odd jobs' for people such as gardening and cleaning etc, have now got a blog spot. The address is www.handy-helpers.blogspot.com

They have raised a fantastic £1019.90 so far! Please let them know if you have any odd jobs that need doing and all proceeds will go to The Charlotte Robinson Trust.

Check them out!

As for Charlotte, she is doing well! Yesterday she started having lessons for an hour every day which will hopefully be a good way to keep her a bit more entertained and have a break from videos and dvd's! She goes on a wheel chair for an hour a day, which is amazing progress from when i last saw her! When i was down in early September she could leave her room in what can only be described as a massive padded recliner chair. And even that was very painful for her, so being able to get into a wheel chair is massive!

She had a short 'stint' of being able to eat loads, but is now back on antibiotics for this pseudomonas bug that she cant seem to rid of, and they are making her sick again.

She is in very good spirits and is being amazingly strong in coming to terms with her lack of mobility. In fact, she is unbelievably strong. An absolute inspiration! I cannot WAIT to see her!!!!!!!!! From my conversations with mum that is the main feeling i get.. that she is astounding everyone with her attitude and the new nurses and doctors are falling in love with her already! Who couldnt.

I hope everyone is well, i will look forward to posting some pictures of my birthday dinner with her in a few weeks :)

Lots of love
Sophie

xXx

From Angela, with love...

...to everyone who sponsored me for the Great North Run. Between us we've raised over £1,200 for The Charlotte Robinson Trust. If you've made a pledge but haven't yet coughed up (!) I'll be hounding you when I return from Frankfurt on 10th May.
For those of you who like reading about the pain of others, my race diary goes something like this:

***
6am: get up in order to get to my aunt's house (to meet Naomi and Mike who are also running) for 7.15am. End up having to leave my breakfast on the table.
7.30am: still waiting for my aunt and other runners to get ready.
7.40am: finally set off. Naomi brings her breakfast in the car. I eat half of it.
8.30am: say goodbye to all three sets of parents at Heworth. Mam wishes the other two good luck and then clasps me to her bosom with a loud 'aw, pet'. Dad reminds her I'm not going off to war.
9.30am: take up our position, having queued half an hour for a port-a-loo. I'm quite near the back. Annoying DJ rabbits on, playing lots of Queen hits and the theme from Chariots of Fire. Then he asks us all to spare a thought for the people and causes we are running for and plays 'Abide With Me'. Everybody starts crying.
11.30am: finally cross the start line, about half an hour after the official start. The winner is already more than half-way round the course.

Miles 1 - 5: unbelievably difficult. One hill after another and boiling hot followed by heavy rain. I'm behind a bloke dressed as a lady sumo wrestler (in a pink bikini) and his mate who is in full clown get-up. Clown sprays a copper on the Tyne Bridge with his water pistol. Clown doesn't get arrested.
Miles 5-7: bit better, course levels out a bit and weather warms up. Fire Brigade are hosing the runners as they go past - I veer into the spray until I remember I'm wearing an ipod and veer out again just in the nick of time. Get into my stride and start to run more quickly - overtake two blokes dressed as Batman and Robin and someone else in a Scooby-Doo suit. Feel a bit smug.
Mile 8: spot a bloke with a garden hose spraying runners from his position on the roof of a bus shelter. First ambulance goes through the crowd. Spot a Haribo cherry on the road - seriously think about stopping
Mile 9: another two ambulances goes past
Mile 10: spot an enormous hill ahead
Mile 11: a mile-long enormous hill which is also a residential road. It is lined with women bearing trays of orange squash, chocolate biscuits and kids holding out grapes and slices of apple. Fourth ambulance stops at top of said hill.
Mile 12: get to the brow of the hill and see the sea! Best feeling ever. Still another mile to go though.
Mile 13.1: longest fecking mile in history. Goes. On. For. Ever. Finally cross the line in 2hrs 34mins. Very very very happy about that.
Stop running. Have a bit of trouble walking. Find the others after about 20 mins. Suddenly very cold so have to be wrapped up in my attractive turkey blanket. Walk 20 mins to South Shields Metro station (the end of the line) to find a sea of people waiting. Walk 25 minutes to next station, come back down the line to South Shields and stay on it, then go south again to Heworth. Parents grumbling a lot by this point. Try not to remind them that I'm also a bit tired of walking around having run a half-marathon. Finally get home at about 5pm...
Stairs, bending and general mobility all still a bit beyond me. Haven't completely discounted doing it all again next year though...
Thanks again,
Angela x

Get your tickets now!

You can now get your tickets for the fundraising gig in Ascot!

The venue is The Jagz Bar and it is next to Ascot train station, which is on the mainline up to London.

It takes place on the 23rd of November, 8pm-1am and the lineup includes

Minechild
Green Room Sanctuary
Chris Roberts aka 'Chunky Funky' (resident DJ from Stringfellows, Paris www.stringfellows-paris.net)


Tickets can be bought using a credit card at www.charlotterobinson.org using paypal, and they are £10 each.

Please come along and bring your friends! We need as many people as possible to make this night excellent!

x we may be able to help find cheap accomodation for the night as well, so please get in touch if you need to.

Great Ormond Street

Finally she has been moved. She is still in the intensive care ward as she still needs the haemofiltration as her kidneys have not started working, and they only deal with those kinds of machines in intensive care!

But she is doing really really well!! She's eating LOADS of food and is chatty and a bit more up beat. She is also now able to roll herself over for bed changes rather than having to be rolled by the nurses which shows that her wounds are healing well, and that she's less stiff and her muscles are getting stronger. All in all she's just getting better!

At the moment it's a bit difficult for people to visit Charlotte. I know alot of people have sent me emails asking if they can see her. The rules for visitors in the intensive care ward are very strict, as you can imagine, and only 2 people are allowed to see Charlotte at any one time. She is also quite reluctant to have loads of people coming to see her in one day. So please dont be offended if she says that she doesnt want to see you, sometimes she just finds it too hard! She is still very weak and tired.

Hopefully i'll have some more pictures up soon to spice up this page a bit!

Love to you all.

Sophie

xXx