Chestnut Tree House name top 10k fundraisers

Lorna Cobbett and her husband Steve completed the hospice’s annual run to say thank you for the support it provides to their nine-month-old daughter Essie, who suffered a severe brain injury at birth, leaving her severely disabled and needing round the clock care.

The couple, from Horsham, successfully fought for NHS care so they could bring Essie home from hospital, and the youngster is now reunited with her family while enjoying sessions at the hospice. Together the pair raised more than £1,600 running as Team Essie and are planning on taking part in the 10k every year as part of their daughter’s legacy.

Lorna, 37, who is also mum to Roman and Eva, said: “Whatever we can do for them, from a fundraising perspective, is a small amount compared to what they have done for us. Essie has stayed at the hospice quite a lot and we also have a lot of support from them as a family. They come out and do babysitting for us, we get counselling from the chaplain, who is amazing, and they’re really good at letting us use their hydrotherapy pool – we can’t say thank you enough.”

Fellow runners the Horsham Joggers Learn to Run team were named top group fundraisers after collecting donations that totalled more than £2,700. The nine-strong team all crossed the finishing line with personal bests, as the race marked their first 10k, and said the experience was “brilliant”.

Rachel Detnon, team captain, said: “It was absolutely amazing and the buzz from everyone else carried us along, especially on the last bit. It’s something we’ll do next year, it’s a really lovely run to do and we’ll aim to improve our PBs for 2017.”

The Joggers were delighted with their fundraising total, which “smashed” their expectations, and was given a boost after team member Andy Robins had his donations match-funded by his workplace, Aspect Capital.

Lorna and Steve, 38, were equally pleased with their total, which they raised through sponsorship from friends and family, and their time of 1:01. Lorna said: “We want to make the 10k the annual fundraising we do in my daughter’s legacy and get together Team Essie every September to take over the streets of Littlehampton. And hopefully going forward we’d like to raise at least a similar amount of money just to say thank you for everything Chestnut Tree House do for us.”

Find out more at www.chestnut-tree-house.org.uk/run.

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