I am running this years GNR for Alopecia UK. This will be the second time running this event for this amazing charity, as they have been really supportive throughout our journey with our daughter Lenas alopecia.

Lenas Story:
Lena started losing her hair when she was two and it was such a tough time for us all. She went on to lose around 70% of her hair. Being an unpredictable autoimmune condition there is very little treatment even for adults, and even less for children Lenas age. Like many parents of children with alopecia, we worked with a nutritional therapist who provided more inclusive testing, and we followed a gut healing protocol through diet and supplements. Within 6 months Lena did start to grow her hair again, and over the course of 12 months had full regrowth. Sadly just before her 5th birthday she started losing her hair again, and over the course of four months lost most of the hair on her head, along with some eye brow thinning. This confirmed to us that this would be an ongoing condition that we would have to manage as best we could, and we are now working more on raising awareness and continuing to build up our daughters confidence.

Alopecia UK
We cannot speak more highly of this charity and the amazing work that they do. We attended our first Alton Towers event in April and we all thoroughly enjoyed the day. We met some of the most lovely people and families living with alopecia. Lena has already made some new friends through a support group in Sunderland ran by an amazing volunteer (Gaileen) and they had the best day at Alton Towers just being kids and having fun.

Alopecia UK are a relatively small charity with only seven staff, of which most work part time alongside their own work. This makes the efforts of Sue and the team with putting on events like Alton Towers such an amazing achievement. Events like this really benefit and help so many people, as well as promote awareness of the condition. We really do feel like part of the Alopecia UK family now and we'll continue to promote their work and fundraise with events like running the GNR, so that they can continue to do their great work and help with valuable research into this autoimmune condition. Marjorie Joyce