13th April 2014 – London Marathon

Dear friends,

Matteo Canonaco, a very good friend of my sister Natalia, will be running this weekend the London Marathon in order to raise money for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children Charity (GOSHCC) on whose corporate board he sits.

But his initiative goes further and he will match each pound he raises for GOSHCC to donate to a mission in Cameroon where his mother personally helps out. This means that for each pound sponsoring the run he will donate one pound to the mission in Cameroon. So our donation is worth double!

Isn’t this a wonderful initiative? Each step in Matteo’s race on Sunday is worth double!! He has reached 90% of his target of £15.000 – which will mean another £15.000 will go straight to Cameroon. 🙂

Let’s help Matteo help those children in the Great Ormond Street Hospital and in Cameroon!!!

The link to make a donation is:
http://www.justgiving.com/Matteo-Canonaco1

This is Matteo’s message to all of us:

Dear friends and colleagues,

As many of you know I nearly ran the London marathon last year and spent many months training only to injure myself a few weeks before the date, so I never made it to the start, let alone the finish line.

I am trying again this year and am determined to at least start, even if I have to walk it. As many of you know, I sit on the corporate board of Great Ormond Street Hospital Children Charity and I will be running to raise money for them.

All the money I raise will go directly to help support the hospital’s urgently needed redevelopment project. Whilst the treatments the hospital provides are world-class, many of their buildings, are not. Their oldest buildings date back to the 1930’s and are no longer fit for purpose. Wards are cramped and outdated and do not provide patients with the facilities they need; there is hardly enough room for life-saving equipment and little space for parents to rest alongside their children. As a parent myself, I can’t imagine not being able to stay by my children’s side when they are ill.
Worst of all, GOSH doesn’t have enough room to treat all of the children who need their help.

Sponsoring me will help fund the redevelopment and ensure GOSH can provide the facilities their patients deserve, giving them and their families greater privacy and dignity at a truly difficult time. The bedrooms will provide patients with en suite facilities and space for either Mum or Dad to stay at the bedside. You can help GOSH to keep up with the growing demand for their services and crucially provide world class care to more children who desperately need their help.

GOSH is a great cause and anyone of us who has children realises how precious good health is. GOSH can make a difference to so many children who have not had the luck to be in good health and enjoy their childhood the way they should. Often, GOSH is also many times the last hope for parents whose plight is to witness their child suffer.

In addition, as many of you know my mother spends a lot of time helping a few missionary men in Cameroon. A couple of years ago she wrote a book about her and the missionaries’ efforts who face a very tough life in a challenging environemt to help extremely disatvantaged people in remote corners of the earth. So I pledged to her that I would personally match every pound I raise for GOSHCC through you to her cause.

So please give generously knowing that your money will go to a good cause and every pound you give to GOSH will mean another great cause will also get precious funds from me.

The link to make a donation is:
http://www.justgiving.com/Matteo-Canonaco1

Many thanks in advance and I will keep you posted on the result!

Matteo