Consultants reach new heights to support local charity
02 August 2018
In April a group of consultants made it to Everest Base Camp to raise money for local Edinburgh children’s cancer charity it’s Good 2 Give, a charity that means a lot to one of the team Mr Graham Lawson.
Just before Christmas 2011, Mr Lawson’s six year old daughter, Tabby, was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia. She was admitted to the Oncology Ward of the Royal Hospital for Sick Children (the "Sick Kids") in Edinburgh, where after nearly three years of chemotherapy and multiple admissions she was given the all clear.
Throughout this time, It's Good 2 Give provided much needed friendly, practical help and support for Tabby and the whole of Mr Lawson’s family. Tabby and her Mum, Donella, are now It's Good 2 Give Ambassadors and Mr Lawson has attempted to raise funds and the profile of the charity with various challenges which include climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, a 100k Arctic Trek and cycling the Pyrenean coast to coast.
The trek to Everest Base Camp was the biggest and longest challenge yet. Mr Lawson was joined on his journey by great friends and colleagues Patrick and Janette Statham and Peter and Margaret Andrews. Between them they had a nurse, a physiotherapist, an anaesthetist, a neurosurgeon and an orthopaedic surgeon – they had all bases covered!
In addition to providing much needed practical help for children and families coping with cancer, It's Good to Give opened the "Ripple Retreat" in 2017 - an iconic holiday retreat on the shores of Loch Venachar near Callander. For many reasons, families with childhood cancer cannot easily go on routine holidays as we know them, and so the "Ripple Retreat" provides a respite and sanctuary for families to get away from it all amidst the scenery of the Trossachs National Park.
Their aim was to raise £17,600 for It's Good to Give - as Everest Base Camp is 17,600 feet above sea-level. They made it successfully to base camp and have since reached their fundraising target, a fantastic achievement. Mr Lawson noted “we had an amazing adventure in the Himalayas – I’ll be back!”