Hi my name is Wayne and I like a beer….or 2 :-)

I have been wanting to fundraise for this cause for a while but haven’t been able to find the right challenge, until now.

As dry January is over, I have found the perfect challenge to test my will power and complete “A Year Off The Beer”.

As many close friends and family will know, I love to have a drink socially whether that is at the football or out with friends…which is why I am questioning why I have chose 2024 to complete this challenge. Not only is this year a year of many friend’s 40th Birthdays and precious family holidays it is also the year of the Euros. With all this in mind, I believe this will test my will power to the limits but for a cause so close to my heart, I know I will be able to do it with the support of others.

For those of you who are not familiar with Alfie’s Story, please read below so you can understand the reason behind this challenge;

“When Alfie was just 9 years old he was diagnosed with a Medulloblastoma High grade cancerous Brain tumour. Alfie spent nearly 2 years of his life in hospital, he endured many Surgeries, 6 weeks of radiotherapy and Months of chemotherapy and we are so thankful that just over a 2 years ago Alfie rang the end of treatment bell. We are so thankful we still have Alfie here with us but unfortunately the aggressive treatment he received has left him with some life changing disabilities.

Me and John (Alfies Parents) still live with the trauma of Alfies diagnosis. People think that Alfie is better and that’s the end but after a diagnosis you worry every single day that his cancer may return. Throughout Alfies journey we saw the devastating effects a child Cancer diagnosis had on so many families, we are so thankful that Alfie won his fight! But for some families their child loses that battle and it’s both devastating and heartbreaking, we lost friends on our journey!

One of things that was important to Alfie when in hospital was to make other children smile, so Alfie used to think of little things we could buy the children to cheer them up when they were feeling poorly when having there chemotherapy. We also set off on a fundraising mission. It isn’t until you are thrown into this unknown world that you realise how important fundraising for charities like Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Children with cancer UK and Brain tumour Research is because without fundraising Alfie probably wouldn’t have survived. So we pulled together some challenges and events and in total we raised over £10,000 for these charities.

But Alfie doesn’t want to stop there so as a family we have decided to try and set up our own little charity with the help and support of some of our wonderful family and friends.It is our aim to start by raising some funds to register a charity called ‘Alfies Smile’ which will look to support children and families in our local community who have been affected by a childhood cancer diagnosis.

We want to create little smiles on poorly children’s faces when they are in hospital having their treatment. We also want to raise awareness into childhood cancer, Alfie had been unwell prior to his diagnosis but had we have known the signs and symptoms of a brain tumour we may have got an earlier diagnosis meaning less aggressive treatment”.

Kerry and John have been close friends of mine for nearly 15 years, and seeing the effects this journey has had on them as a whole family has been devastating to watch. With this in mind, I feel it’s the right time to complete my own challenge and raise as much awareness and money as possible to fund Alfie’s Smile with their next missions.

Please help with donating what you can spare for this amazing cause.

Here’s to a year on 0% Peroni’s.

Cheers,

Wayne.