Samantha lives in Littleborough, a single mum of two fantastic children, recently her life has been turned upside down by a rare genetic condition called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS).

She is fundraising to raise in the region of £150,000 for surgery that is not available on the NHS or in the UK. She will need to travel to Barcelona or the US where the surgeons have developed a method to successfully complete this treatment on an EDS patient with a 95% success rate. Samantha is in excruciating pain and suffers neurological symptoms, the EDS has now caused her to have Cranial Cervical Instability (CCI) this is causing the weight of her skull to crush her spinal cord and brain stem.

Her children deserve their healthy, happy mummy back and has way too much to live for to let the condition win.

One of our wonderful members Scott Teirney is an old friend of Samantha’s and has dedicated his time to fundraising by challenging himself to swim 100 miles (6400 lengths) in 12 weeks.

To date Scott has swam an impressive 50 miles in 25 days, go Scott!

He has been swimming morning and night to get this far and is being hugely encouraged along the way by all of the OHLC team.

Scott has already raised so much already however every penny counts and Samantha is still in need of so much more. If you would like to donate to this cause please either follow the link below or sign Scott’s sponsor form which can be found in our centre.

To donate visit www.youcaring.com/samanthasmith-788861