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Thank you for all the amazing support that you give our families, we had an amazing experience last year with our son thanks to you!! The Algie Family
A ski holiday for Blair, born with Niemann Pick C Disease (a rare progressive genetic disorder - there is no known cure and mainly affects children) and also having had a liver transplant this was a magical experience with many happy and life-changing memories!
Julie Algie contacted Catherine Cosby, Founder of Ski 2 Freedom Foundation, about a ski resort that would be accessible and offer the best adaptive ski guiding for Blair and after a few choices were put forward, the Algie family finally decided on the French ski resort of Les Gets. Very family friendly and with excellent specialist ski instruction with ESF Les Gets, the resort offered all that Blair needed for his first ski holiday! (Although Mountains 4 All now provides the detailed advice and information on accessible and adaptive mountain experiences, last winter it was still Ski 2 Freedom which undertook this detailed work.)
The ESF Les Gets were extremely helpful about Blair’s needs and quite happily accepted him into the Piu Piu Club (Sunday, the first day, was a great success!) He had ski lessons each morning and then was taken in the Nagano Hotel in Les Gets which is just across the road from the ski school and ski slopes so perfectly located.
Catherine went down to meet the Algie Family on the third day of their ski holiday. This winter Blair is the second child with NPC to ask for help from Ski 2 Freedom about empowering moments on the ski slopes. Both parents are skiers and share the same passion and spiritualism that the mountains give as Catherine.
The day I visited Blair was ill and needed an emergency trip to the main hospital in the valley so a quick car trip but smiles all round on his last day in Les Gets! This is truly one remarkable family and young boy! Catherine
Given the rarity of this condition and, understanding how much time spent together gathering memories and sharing precious moments is to families, both families have agreed to share their experiences in the hope that we can encourage others to share in the life-changing environment - snowflakes, laughter, tears - precious capsules of time that sadly, will undoubtedly, change in the forthcoming years but to be recharged and to absorb the clear air, oxygen and warm of the welcome and friendliness of those who live and work in this extraordinary environment, can only bring strength and resilience to meet what lies ahead.
Read the full story about Blair 1164-m-les-gets-algie-blair-npd
To know more about NPC www.npuk.org/niemann-pick-disease/
For more information about how to support Mountains 4 All and Ski 2 Freedom or if you need advice please contact catherine.cosby@mountains4all.org
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