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You are here: Home | Magazine | Holidays/Events | Outstanding Family Awards 2010 | Candis Outstanding Family of the Year Awards 2008 | West Midlands Regional Winner

West Midlands Regional Winner

The Cullen family from Kenilworth near Coventry

Over the last four years, Ginny Cullen has raised over £20,000 for charity, by running four marathons, organising fashion shows, salsa nights and bring and buy sales. In addition she mentors at a local school and does voluntary work, including fundraising for local community projects and working at mental health charity MIND's drop in centre. She also works part time in an estate agents.

All this, while being a single mum to Joshua, 16, and Daniel, 14, who suffers from Cystic Fibrosis (CF) - an incurable, hereditary disease that affects the internal organs, especially the lungs and digestive system, making it hard to breathe and digest food.

"People ask how I do it, but I don't do it single-handedly. The boys are a great help. We work as a team, with everybody doing their part.

"CF is an illness that you can't get better from, so when I found out Daniel had it, it was a real blow. But having someone like Daniel in your family makes you realise that you have to make the most of every minute of every single day, because life really is precious."

Daniel requires two sessions of physiotherapy every day as well as nebulisers, medication and a very high calorie diet."Mornings are quite full-on and we get up very early but it's all part of our routine so we just get on with it. It makes the juggling act of being a mum - which every mum has to perfect - that little more taxing, but it works because we pull together as a family to help Daniel with his illness."

The family have found one of the best ways of dealing with Daniel's illness is by helping others.

"Daniel desperately wanted a dog, but due to my work we couldn't get one full-time so we compromised and began looking after guide dogs waiting to be matched with new owners," Ginny explains.

The boys have also played an integral part in organising fundraising concerts at school ?that have raised £20,000 for the inhabitants of Bo in Sierra Leone and Uyogo in Tanzania, the latter being twinned with Kenilworth where the Cullens live. And Daniel, a gifted poet, often performs his poetry at such events, which expresses what it is like to live as a teenager with CF.

Joshua, meanwhile, has recently completed the bronze Duke of Edinburgh Award and is currently working towards silver. A talented basketball player, he represents Warwickshire and Coventry and also acts as a school basketball coach, helping staff coach younger pupils.

Says Ginny, "I'm so proud of both of my boys, Daniel, for his bravery and creativity, Joshua for his total selflessness. CF is a very demanding illness and a lot of my time is devoted to Daniel's care, so I'm not there for Joshua as much as I would like. But never has he complained.

"I would give anything for Daniel to be healthy, but he's not, so we concentrate on staying positive, and we've found by helping others we actually help ourselves."