Rainbow Ward gets £1,273 from fundraising half marathon and skydive

He’s carried out a half marathon, where he beat his previous record time, and taken part in a skydive. He even hoped to have run a marathon in Brighton, but a broken foot injury kept him side-lined.

Despite the setback Tony Lawrence managed to raise £1,273 which has been directed towards the Rainbow Ward at the West Suffolk Hospital, in Bury St Edmunds.

The 31-year-old truck co-ordinator, who works for XPO Logistics and lives in the town, clocked up 1 hour 54 minutes in the Cambridge Half marathon, held in March, and in June took part in a tandem skydive from 13,000ft at UK Parachuting, in Bungay, to raise the money.

Tony, who has been a keen supporter of the My WiSH Charity, which supports the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust and includes the West Suffolk Hospital as well as Newmarket Hospital and community services, raised money for critical care back in 2018 in memory of his father, and his daughter Olivia-Rose walked two miles dressed as a robot during the Covid pandemic.

Tony Lawrence pictured taking part in the Cambridge Half Marathon and following his skydive. Photos: Tony Lawrence.

But his latest initiative came after the Rainbow Ward treated and cared for his two-year-old niece Daisy, who lives with her parents Jade and Karl, in Haughley.

He said: “During the summer last year Daisy was admitted to the Rainbow Ward with a mysterious kidney problem. Over the following six weeks they treated Daisy along with her mum and dad with such kindness and compassion. The staff there did everything possible to make Daisy’s stay comfortable. 

“With Daisy being non verbal it was a struggle with her medication and treatment but they strived to make it as stress free and painless for Daisy as possible.

“During her stay they worked tirelessly to transfer Daisy to a kidney specialist ward at the Queen’s Medical Centre, in Nottingham, for further treatment and investigation, in conjunction with this they were working out a way to get Daisy’s treatment to a point where she could come home for her birthday, which they achieved.

“Both her mum and dad, along with the rest of the family, are extremely grateful to the wonderful staff and their relentless work on the Rainbow Ward.”

Tony said he was delighted to beat his personal best of two hours for the half marathon and said the skydive was set to be the “first of many” more.

“I said to the parachute instructor that I wanted to get back into the plane,” he said of the sky-high thrill.

And speaking of the work carried out by staff at the Rainbow Ward, Tony added: “They are just brilliant, and I wanted to raise money for the ward because of the way they treated Daisy and her parents.”

And he had a final word of praise for My WiSH saying: “They are a fabulous cause to work for because you see where the money is going directly towards.”

Sally Daniels, fundraising manager for My WiSH, thanked Tony for his amazing fundraising and said: “Tony has raised over £4,500 to date for various areas that we support. We can’t thank him enough; he faces each challenge with real gusto which is just fantastic. Thanks too to all who donated to his cause.”