Carers Support West Sussex is urging people in the county to get behind a carer hoping to raise more than £3000 for the local charity when he takes on the Virgin Money London Marathon next month. (Sunday April 28th).
Father of four Simon Horwood, from Crawley, is running the 26.2 miles around the famous course in support of the charity which has helped him while caring for his wife Jan who was diagnosed with a rare condition in 2014.
Carers Support West Sussex supports some of the 89,000 unpaid family and friend carers in West Sussex with services including a six-day-a-week response line (0300 028 8888), support groups, a Carer Equipment Service, Hospital Teams and wellbeing workshops.
Simon said:
“In 2014 Jan was diagnosed with Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which is a rare genetic condition. This condition is an invisible illness so to look at Jan you would think there wasn’t much wrong with her but there actually is. When you live with someone with an invisible illness you can clearly see how badly affected they actually are. There are so many associated conditions and symptoms connected to EDS which affect Jan and others.”
“The help and support that Carers Support West Sussex provides to carers is amazing. I am grateful for the help they have given me over the past few years since I became Jan’s main carer and I would like to give something back to them.”
Rachael Swann, Funding and Development Lead for Carers Support West Sussex said:
“It’s amazing that Simon is taking on this challenge to support the charity. We know he’s been training hard and we’re giving him as much help as we can ahead of this huge challenge.”
“Carers Support West Sussex has more than 90 staff and 70 volunteers but we’d like to be able to do so much more and the money that Simon is raising will go a long way towards us being able to do that. We’re asking anyone who can to help him get to his £3000 fundraising target.”
People can read more about Simon and his caring story, and donate to his fundraising page by going to www.carerssupport.org.uk/londonmarathon
