It has been a great joy to have the family and friends of Rose Kelly here today seeking sponsorship for the bike trek from Land's End to John O'Groats via Ireland in July 2009.  With great thanksgiving, Rose can not be called a baby any more.   We have been praying for her since she was only a few months old.  She has endured great medical challenges.  Against the odds, the three-year-old is looking forward to a joyful childhood.  Her family and friends are very grateful to the parish and the Sacred Heart School for our prayers and support.  But equally grateful are they to the medical providers who made it possible for Rose to contemplate going to school.  This endurance bike trek is an act of thanksgiving.  Most of the funds will go to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity.  The funds raised will be used to help fund a new research project at Great Ormond Street Hospital and the Institute of Child Health to help combat childhood cancer.  

It is one thing to be grateful for all the efforts for one's child.  It is another to spend almost a year in raising funds with this bike trek.  As members of our community the perception of our interdependence and mutual support can be easily neglected.  Much our technological advances serve to isolate ourselves, where we can choose who and when we engage with others.  It is occasions like this where we glimpse the true purpose of our human existence.  I encourage all to us to support Rose in the effort to give back a portion of what her family finds so precious: THE GIFT OF ROSE.

Online donations can be made here.