In aid of Florences Heroes, Lexden Rackets and Fitness Club are excited to be hosting a 24 hour racketball marathon.

The 24 hours start at 7pm on Thursday 21^st through to 7pm Friday 22^nd Nov, with 6 players playing for 8 hours each. Members can challenge any of the 6 players for a game up to 11, but you will need to donate 50p for every point one of the 6 players score – this means that the maximum donation will be £5.50. All donations are greatly received.

To celebrate the achievement of playing racketball for 24 hours, there is also a Lexden Rackets and Fitness Club reunion being held from 7pm onwards on Friday 22^nd Nov. This is open to all current and past members to enjoy the music and to cheer the 6 players on as they finish their mammoth 24 hours of playing.

Florence’s Heroes, a charitable fund set up by Chris and Sarah Wheat. Their story is below:

Florence was born just over 6 weeks early in 2015, weighing in at a little over 3 lbs. She was immediately admitted to the Neonatal Unit at Colchester General Hospital. At only a few days she was diagnosed with Hydrocephalus (a build-up of fluid on the brain) and then not long after that her Congenital Heart Defects. In total, she spent the first 104 days of her life in 3 different hospital

There are 3 services in her journey so far that we are so indebted to and thus “Florence’s Heroes Fund” was born. It is our pledge as a family to fund raise in various ways, not for Florence herself but for these services to enable them to go on helping other children.

1. Neonatal Unit at Colchester General Hospital – the care Florence received during her long stay on this unit was exceptional. As a family, we remain thankful to this team every day for everything they did for Florence.
2. Acute Neonatal Transfer Service (ANTS)– this is a regional service that specialises in the transportation of sick babies. They have 2 ambulances for the whole of East Anglia. Every shift each ambulance is manned by a driver, specialist neonatal nurse and doctor. They are equipped with a transportable incubator and with every possible piece of equipment that a sick baby may need. This is a 24 hour, 7 days a week service. In total Florence travelled with them 6 times in 3 months.
3. Royal Brompton Hospital – there are few hospitals in the world that have the skills and expertise to perform open heart surgery to repair defects on a tiny 2 month old baby weighing only 5lbs. This hospital is world class and without whom Florence would not be with us today.