Dales family help put fun into fundraising for poorly baby (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Dales family help put fun into fundraising for poorly baby

10:15am Saturday 31st July 2010

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A DALES family and Westmorland Gazette employees will be dressing up to the nines and lacing up their walking boots to help raise money for a good cause in August.

Bentham sisters Dawn Dixon and Sharon Haslam will be among more than 100 people taking part in Feet For Frankie, a fancy dress sponsored walk in aid of Derian House Children’s Hospice, which is helping to care for 11-month-old Frankie Forgione.

Frankie - the great nephew of Dawn and Sharon - has Krabbe Leukodystrophy, a terminal illness which affects his eyesight, movement and swallowing, and which, without medication, would cause him constant pain.

Most children with the disease pass away before the age of two, and the average life expectancy is just 13 months.

Mrs Dixon, who has helped organise the event for August 29, said: “We wanted to do something to help Derian House because they have been brilliant for Sean, Kim and Frankie, and they rely on fundraising and donations to stay open.

“The idea is for the walk to be fun and we have chosen ’F’ for Frankie as the theme for the fancy dress. At the moment I’m thinking of dressing up as a frog, but it’s proving a bit tricky to get the costume right!”

Also involved in the walk are Mrs Dixon’s husband Tony, and Mrs Haslam’s daughters Faye, Amy and Rosy, who works at the Gazette with reporter and fellow walker Daniel Orr.

All of them want to help the Lancashire-based hospice, which costs £1.7m to run every year but only receives enough Government funding to stay open for three days a year.

Frankie’s parents, Kim Robinson and Sean Forgione, of Leyland, say the charity has been ‘amazing’.

Miss Robinson said: “They have been a great support and without them it’s hard to know how we would have coped. They are there to give us respite and they are brilliant with our beautiful baby.”

Frankie, who will celebrate his first birthday the day before the walk, was diagnosed with the neurological disease earlier this year after problems with feeding and using his hands.

“It was devastating when we found out - the worst possible news we could have had. It is very rare - we know of one other boy in the whole country who has the disease.

But we’ve got through it by staying in the here and now, and we want Frankie to have as happy a time as he can while he is here. It won’t do him any good if we are moping around.”

To donate money for the walk, which takes place in Leyland, visit www.justgiving.com/feetforfrankie

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