The Lily Foundation packed a punch in the fight against Mitochondrial disease with a charity boxing event at the Clapham Grand last week.
The charity that supports families who have been affected by the disease raised £21,000 from their boxing fight night on Thursday April 14.
Liz Curtis, 41, set up the charity back in October 2007 after the heartbreaking death of her eight-month-old daughter Lily.
Lily was diagnosed at seven weeks old and her family were told she would only survive a few days, but their daughter provided a further six months of memories for the Curtis’.
Since then the charity has raised more than £1.6 million in attempts to boost research and move closer to finding further treatment and, their end goal, to find a cure.
Families affected by Mitochondrial disease have been offered support by Mrs Curtis and her team.
“I’ve got a full team of people that work with me, two of which have lost their children like I have, so we get it,” she said.
“We’ve been there and we understand and that can just make people feel so much better.
”When you have something like this and you’ve never heard of it you feel so alone.
“Just to know there is somebody else out there doing something and bringing a little bit of hope that one day it might be a bit different.”
The event attracted 450 people to come and show their support to the charity along with Sky Sports presenters Adam Leventhal and Andy Burton, Johnny Nelson and Adam Smith.
Great night hosting @4Lilyfoundation FightNight @TheClaphamGrand w/ @SkyAdamSmith @SkyJohnnyNelson & AB. Fighters 👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/WZNphE1KLk
— Adam Leventhal (@AdamLeventhal) April 15, 2016
“We’re very lucky because they’re very committed and they’re colleagues of my brother, John Curtis,” said Mrs Curtis.
The next event on their calendar is ‘Sapey Golf Day’ hosted by BBC’s Jonathan Pearce from Match Of The Day on April 29 in Worcestershire.
To get involved and show your support to the charity you can donate via their JustGiving page.
Please follow @DaveMerritt7, Lily's incredible dad running his 9th #LondonMarathon on Sunday for @4Lilyfoundation #runchat #mitoaware
— The Lily Foundation (@4Lilyfoundation) April 21, 2016
Image courtesy of The Lily Foundation, with thanks
