A Merstham father is taking on seven gargantuan charity challenges before donating his kidney to his young son.
Godfrey Haire, 41, is set to take on challenges including the RideLondon-Surrey 100 and cycling the equivalent of four times up Mt Everest on an exercise bike.
Mr Haire, who lives on the Watercolour Estate, is doing all this in an effort to raise £5,000 for the Rainbow Trust, a charity that has supported his eight-year-old son Henry
Henry was born with Posterior Urethral Valves, a rare condition that has left him with severe bladder and kidney damage as well as having to be fed through a tube into his stomach.
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The eight-year-old also recently had to have a Hickman Line fitted (a catheter into a large vein in the neck used to administer medication).
Speaking about his son’s challenges Mr Haire said: “The [Hickman] line has been quite stressful but you just carry on and look at the good things.”
“He’s doing ok, he still smiles every day. Starlight UK recently sent us to Disney and he loved it.
“He’s also met Ron Weasley [Rupert Grint] at 10 Downing Street!”
The Merstham Primary School pupil is unable to get the line wet which means he can no longer go swimming, one of his favourite things to do, and has also developed a phobia of needles as a result of the many blood tests and injections he has had to endure.
Doctors predict that Henry’s one remaining working kidney will soon fail and at this time his father will be donating his own for a transplant.
All of these challenges have led Mr Haire to take on some of his own in a bid to raise money for the Rainbow Trust.
In particular Mr Haire wants to pay tribute to Henry’s family support worker Nicki Phelan.
He said: "She is a brilliant emotional support when the stresses and strains of our situation gets too much.
“Nicki has been on this journey with families hundreds of times and because of that she understands the doctors jargon, she knows her way around the hospital and she is a dab hand with Nerf gun!
"It's all these things and more that Nicki does that makes things just a little bit easier for us. She can’t cure Henry’s condition, but she can and she does help us and other families in similar situations cope day to day.”
Mr Haire is now set to embark on 12 months of challenges beginning with a 500km group static bike ride in Redhill town centre.
The father will take on further static rides, tackling the width of America and the equivalent of climbing Everest four times over the course of the year.
Mr Haire will also cycle up the Sa Calobra climb in Mallorca in March and up Mt Ventoux in the French Alps.
After taking part in RideLondon Surrey 100 in August Mr Haire will then complete his challenges with the Hever Castle Triathlon in Scotland in September.
Speaking of the tough task ahead of him Mr Haire said: “Some may look at [the list] and think 'what a hero' but far from it, the only hero in this world is my beautiful son Henry.”
You can donate money to the cause here. You can register for organ donation here.
