Joshua was born with Congenital Melanocytic Naevi (CMN) covering 40% of his trunk and has over 40 satellites throughout his entire body. You can read his story here. Throughout the past year Joshua has been taking on a series of fundraisers to raise awareness and money for Caring Matters Now. Read below to find out what he has been getting up to…
“During lockdown my mum saw the ability to become an ambassador which she knew I’d love to become part of. The charity means so much to us as a family and anything that I am able to fundraise towards research and breakthrough is a small price to pay.
In June, I took part in my first fundraising event which was the Weybridge 5k. It was very successful and I finished in under 30 minutes. I was training for the run a couple of weeks before, but I was still very nervous before the race. When I had been training I finished in 35 minutes, but I found the route very pretty and I was so happy when I finished with my PB.
In September I took on my second challenge, the Run Thorpe Park 5k. The run at Thorpe Park came out even better than the one at Weybridge and I finished in 24 minutes which I was really surprised about as it was 6 whole minutes faster than the one at Weybridge! It was really fun to run past all the rides, although with so many up and down hills my legs were in agony the next day!
Coming up next, I have the bungee jump in October. I am looking forward to the bungee jump, but I am equally nervous about doing it, I have never done something quite as scary, but I think it is going to be really great!
Before I started Senior School, my mum passed on the CMN leaflet and had a meeting to explain, the school have always been very kind to make sure I was able to be loud and proud about my CMN in my own way. During an assembly, I explained about the charity and the rare condition I have, and boys then asked more out of interest.
I play Cricket and so does my friend from school, Jack. During a cricket match, Jack’s dad started talking about how he had heard about the things I had been doing for the charity, he then mentioned that Jack had the same condition as me. Who would have thought something so rare and to have a boy in the same school, same year and was in the same football and cricket team. We were destined to meet! Since then, we have wanted to start doing events at our school together.
We are organising a football event for all of Years 7, 8 and 9 at school. We want to also announce this during each year group’s assembly. In the assembly we will do a short speech about the charity and the odds of Jack and I being friends with the same condition. We’re also hoping to do more events throughout the school year and maybe even a run together later in the year.”
We are so grateful for our Young Ambassdors, like Joshua and Jack, who have learned to use their confidence and leadership skills to raise funds and awareness for CMN and Caring Matters Now. If you would like to find out more about our Young Ambassafors Programme, click here.
We have lots of ways that you can get involved with helping to raise funds also, with various events taking place throughout the year. Click here to find an event that suits you and get involved.
