Jacqueline's Marathon Page

Creator: Jacqueline Pohl

Please sponsor me:

Help me reach my goal of: $750
So far I've raised: $100

I am fundraising for Children's Hospital!

On June 10, 2009, Mommy and Daddy found out that I had a 99% chance of being born with a club foot. Six months later on November 5, 2009, I was born.

One in one thousand babies are born with a club foot or two club feet. As many of you know, I was born with a right club foot. Only 5 days after I was born, I began following a course of treatment known as the Ponseti method which had me being fitted with my first toe to hip cast. For the next 6 weeks my foot was repositioned and re-casted. Following the sixth casting, at 1 ½ months old, I had a surgical procedure called a tenotomy (my Achilles tendon was cut to allow it to be lengthened when it healed). I was then re-casted for six weeks and then fitted for my brace which I wore for 23 hours a day for almost three months (until I was about 5 months old). Since that time, and until I am 4, I wear the brace to bed as a preventative measure – which proves to be a little tricky to go potty during the night.

I was walking at ten months and two days old, and I haven’t stopped since. In fact, I pretty much run and jump everywhere I go. As Daddy says, they named a song after me this year "Moves Like Jacka.” Because of the doctors at Children’s Hospital Boston, I have defeated the odds and showed what a resilient woman I am going to grow up to be. Nothing is going to hold me back.

After a lot, and I mean a lot, of hemming and hawing, Mommy is not running the marathon this year, but my new friend Mike Kane, who ran with Mommy in my honor last year will be running. So we are very excited and honored that he wanted to run for me and Children’s Hospital Boston again. Mommy and I are both going to participate again next year, 2013, as it will be a very big year for our family – I will be turning 4 and will hopefully done with my brace! We want to celebrate in grand style.

I am honored to have been selected to participate as a Patient Partner again for the 2012 Children’s Hospital Boston Marathon Team. I am raising money for Children’s Hospital Boston to thank them for all they have done for my family and to help ensure other families going though similar journeys with their children receive the best care possible.

I believe so strongly in all the good things Children's Hospital Boston does for kids. Its patient care programs are unusually sensitive to what sick and injured children and their families really need. Its researchers regularly make amazing discoveries that change children's lives. It welcomes kids whose families can't afford health care-more than any other hospital in Massachusetts. It makes a point of reaching out to local communities to help low-income and at-risk kids. And it really gets the importance of training the next generation of top pediatricians and nurses.

I would appreciate any support you can give me to help me reach my goal of at least $750. Your donation will strengthen the hospital’s research leading to discoveries to benefit both children and adults. All money will go directly to Children’s.

You can make a donation on line at my personal fund raising page:

http://howtohelp.childrenshospital.org/bostonmarathon/page/Jacqueline-Pohl.htm

Or you can send a cash or check donation to my Mommy personally at:

649 Washington Street, East Bridgewater, MA 02333

Please make checks payable to Children’s Hospital Boston or to Jennifer Pohl.

I truely appreciate your support.

Love, Jackie

My sponsors to date: