I had never heard of the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Why would I? My life was peachy!

In 2016, on a family reunion in Australia, 8 of us were involved in a terrible accident involving a golf buggy. It has taken me five years, and a tremendous amount of counselling to come to terms with the events of that day, and the weeks that followed.

My family and I had varying degrees of injury and we were all airlifted or taken by boat to different hospitals in Queensland. For those of you that don't know, Queensland is seven times the size of Great Britain. It is vast!

The weeks that followed the accident were the strangest of my life. None of us were able to process what had happened. We had to be strong for our children and our family - but burying those feelings can be catastrophic.

This is not however, a story of pain and grief, but one about finding comfort, support, and most surprisingly of all - happiness, at the most surprising of times.

When Myles and I arrived in Townsville alone, we pulled up outside the Ronald McDonald House - only to be greeted by Ronald himself: an imposing, jolly clown sat on the bench right next to the front door. He was a terrifying sight, but in hindsight, an emblem of safety to all of us.

Ronald McDonald House, and every single one of its workers and volunteers, provided us with not only access to the comforts we no longer had (accommodation, clothes, food and water) but they provided us with experiences that could almost be coined as joyful: a place to be together, a place where our children could play in safety, home cooked meals, support workers, even day trips.

Nothing was too much effort for any of the kind people we came into contact with at Ronald McDonald. I am so grateful that when we needed help most, they were there for us. The work that this charity does continues to astound me.

They keep families of young children in hospital close by. They care for the families - because they don't have the time or the energy to care for themselves.

I will be running my first Ultra Marathon, Race to the Stones, on July 10th.

I pledge to finish every single one of the 100km's, and each one I do is to raise as much money as possible for this amazing charity, who saved us from falling apart.

Now it is my turn to pay it forward, so that the Ronald McDonald House Charities can continue to do the same for future families in need.

Love, Lauren xo