As some of you will already know, in a couple of week’s time I’m taking 10 days to walk across England with a good friend of mine, the unstoppable Eddie Rawling.  Starting in St.Bees on the Cumbrian coast and ending up in Robin Hood’s Bay on the Yorkshire coast, the walk will encompass 192 miles of gruelling trekking through some of the most beautiful and rugged countryside in England.

Traversing the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales and North Yorkshire Moors the route incorporates a terrific number of hills and is ordinarily walked by those in distinctly better physical shape than myself.  Nevertheless, I’m stepping up the training and have decided to approach the walk with an entirely ill-deserved sense of confidence and a flagrant disregard for the apparent need for expensive walking equipment and long-distance trekking experience.  A couple of full inhalers and some blister plasters should be all I need.  Wish me luck.

As I walk I’m hoping to raise money for a charity close to my heart called Scoo-B-Doo.  Scoo-B-Doo raises money for the Special Babycare Unit at Gloucestershire Hospital – money which is spent on equipment to help save the lives of babies in special need, including those born prematurely.  Scoo-B-Doo also provides on-site accommodation and welfare services to support parents during exceptionally difficult times.  The charity provides magnificent support and is one that has sadly touched our family personally.

Please give generously in the satisfaction that I’m going to have some horrendous blisters by the end of this: http://www.justgiving.com/schofandeddiewalkcoast2coast

Mike Schofield

Tim Harrison dropped us a mail recently. His daughter was born 12 weeks early and spent the first part of her life with us in SBCU. She’s now 4 months old and doing very well!

To raise funds for Scoo-B-Doo, Tim is due to complete a 100-mile run in 3 days at the end of April starting in Wales and ending in Cheltenham. His target is to raise a fantastic £2000 and he’s already 45% of the way there.

You can read more about Tim’s huge run and sponsor on his Justgiving page here http://www.justgiving.com/100miletim safe in the knowledge that every singe penny donated to Scoo-B-Doo goes directly to help our tiny little patients.

Good luck Tim – we can;t wait to see the photos and hear how it went!!

Another great day collecting coins in the centre of Gloucester raised over £500 for Scoo-B-Doo.

The annual ritual of pushing the the ‘vintage’ incubator from the SCBU unit at Gloucester Royal into the centre of town took place on 20th June manned by charity volunteers, staff members and an enthusiastic band of friends and family.

Unit nurse Rachel Middleton commented,

“Times are tough and the recession has really hit hard but even so, the amount of support for Scoo-B-Doo in the centre of town today was overwhelming. It’s amazing how many families who’s lives have been touched in some way by the work we do”

If you would like to help with next year’s incubator push and help collect money for Scoo-B-Doo then please drop us a note!