Duo running marathon to thank hospital for care
Alan NorthmoreA father and son are set to run the London Marathon to raise money for a children's hospital.
Harry Northmore and his dad Alan are hoping to raise £5,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children (GOSH) which has provided help to Harry's brother Josh.
Josh has Hemimegalencephaly (HME), a rare neurological condition in which one-half of the brain, or one side of the brain, is abnormally larger than the other.
The family said after years of treatment from GOSH Josh can now walk by himself and feed himself. The pair were gifted places in the marathon by the hospital.
Alan said for the first three or four months of Josh's life he seemed like any other baby, but then it became apparent something was wrong.
He said: "Initially he was on several drugs to control seizures but then... they decided the best thing to do was disconnect the left side of his brain essentially."
"So we went over there (to GOSH) and he was in surgery for 12 hours and they managed about 90% of the disconnect, but then he had a bleed so they had to stop.
"Then we had to go back 18 months later and they did the balance so I think the first one was at least 12 hours and the second one was another eight to 10 hours."
Harry said he saw Josh being his sibling as a "bit of a blessing".
"Growing up with someone so like sensitive and vulnerable and stuff, I think has taught us a lot of life skills."
Alan added Josh was a "happy child" and "gets the maximum he can out of life."
'Immensley proud'
The father son duo will be running the London Marathon on Sunday 26 April.
Harry said it was around April last year that he decided he wanted to run the London Marathon but knew the chances of securing a place were slim.
He said he approached his father, who will be completing his 11th marathon, who said "you know what, I'll sign up with you and we'll see what happens".
Harry said: "We got in contact with GOSH and they were very keen to work with us and we were lucky enough to be gifted places with GOSH to run it for them.
"It's dawned on me recently that this is going to be an incredibly emotional day when we go out there to do it.
"I'm actually just really utterly excited and just immensely proud to be able to do it next to my dad."
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