Many congratulations to Garett Farrell who successfully completed the Virgin London Marathon on Sunday 3 October and raised over £7,500 for our maternity service.

His rationale for taking on the London Marathon stemmed from the visit he and his wife, Alison, made to Kingston Hospital in July 2020 for their 20 week scan and a desire to give something back.

“Sadly, we discovered our first child, little baby boy Finn, had quietly passed away a few days beforehand. We were devastated. The next few days passed in a horrible blur as we struggled to come to terms with the loss and my wife was induced to give birth to him. It was a horrendous time, but it could have been far worse had we not been so well looked after by the maternity staff in their purpose-built Daisy Room. They were absolutely superb and carried us through what was an unbelievably tough few days and beyond, supporting us for months afterwards with counselling and more.”

For Jasmine Dunne, taking on a running challenge has become an annual event since her father, Chris, passed away at Kingston Hospital in June 2019. In that first year, she took on the 10km Chase the Sun before progressing to a half marathon in 2020. This year Jasmine took on the Virtual London Marathon around Richmond Park which she successfully completed on the day of the actual event, despite having a heavy cold.

After her marathon effort, Jasmine said:

“Running has been a brilliant way to clear my mind and process my loss over the past couple of years. I absolutely love raising money for Kingston Hospital, who helped my dad so much when he was ill. My friends and family have been a great support in all my running and I can’t thank them enough for all their generous donations.”

In total, Jasmine has raised nearly £3,000 in support of our intensive care unit.