My Story

I'm Gemma - Family Support Lead at the Challenging Behaviour Foundation, Mum to two wonderfully headstrong girls and now London Marathon Runner!

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation is a small but dedicated national charity supporting families of children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour may challenge those around them. Through our policy, projects and family support work our aim is for people with severe learning disabilities to have the right support at the right time to achieve the things many of us don't give a second thought - a safe home, meaningful activities, contact with our family and a bit of fun along the way!

I have been privileged to be able to choose my role supporting our families; it is a role I care about deeply and passionately. However, our families didn't get to choose their role in their relatives’ life, they didn't imagine when a tiny baby arrived, that they would become a life long carer. They could never have imagined how difficult the system would be to navigate, how hard they would need to fight for the life most people take for granted and how lonely that might become.

I admire very single one of you; when life is hard you keep fighting even though you may feel like giving up. Please know that your grit and determination and everything you have shared with me about your wonderful sons, daughters, sisters and brothers will be at the forefront of my mind when this run gets inevitably hard.

You've never given up and I can assure you neither will I!

If you've never heard of the CBF, you can find out more about our work and our committed team at www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk and if you can, please consider donating a few pounds to help us continue to work for and with families all over the UK.