Dad runs two marathons in two months for charity that helped his daughter communicate again
Robin Gibson from Edinburgh, has signed up to take on the Brighton Marathon and London Marathon over the next two months to raise money for The Children’s Trust.
Robin was inspired to take on the challenge after his daughter, Floss, received brain injury rehabilitation at the charity’s specialist centre.
In May 2019, Floss was celebrating her 17th birthday in her hometown of Barnard Castle when she was a passenger in a high-speed car accident. She suffered a devastating brain injury which put her in a coma for a month and with limited awareness of the world around her for nearly a year. Prior to the accident, Floss was a fit and healthy A-level student and keen rugby player workings towards a career as a lawyer. The accident left her with a severe brain injury, unable to walk, communicate or feed herself.
Nine months after her brain injury, aged 18, Floss moved to The Children’s Trust in Surrey where she received a combination of intensive physio, speech and language, occupational therapy, aquatics, play therapy and music therapy to try and relearn the skills she had lost. Floss also attended The Children’s Trust School, a non-maintained special school supporting children and young people aged 2-19 with a wide range of needs.
Robin comments: “With the first week of focused rehabilitation, my daughter showed responses not seen before and, three months later, she was clinically declared conscious and on the road to recovery. In the coming nine months, The Children's Trust helped my daughter to start to communicate, start to look after herself, make her first steps in trying to eat and even put her back on her feet with a few tentative and supported steps. Most importantly, The Children's Trust gave my daughter her smile back.”
Robin has already reached his target of £3000 and now aims to continue his fundraising efforts and raise the bar even further.
He adds: “I’m very excited to take on this challenge and raise vital funds for a charity that has given our family so much. We’ll be forever grateful for how the staff helped Floss with her recovery and I’m pleased we can give back in some way.”
If you would like to take on a challenge in aid of The Children’s Trust, the UK’s leading charity for children with brain injury, visit: https://www.thechildrenstrust.org.uk/events To donate to Robin’s Just Giving page, visit: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/robin-gibson3
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