Jamilla Blake is fundraising for The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital Charity

I will be running my very first half marathon in October to raise money for the RNOH charity, who supported me through my life-saving spinal surgery.

The Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital is one of the top centres in the world for the treatment of many complex orthopaedic conditions, including acute spinal injuries, bone cancer and congenital limb deformities. I was referred to the RNOH, aged seven, after my local hospital found an unusual mass on my spine. This led to an incredibly rare one in a million diagnosis of an aneurysmal bone cyst. The cyst was growing at an alarmingly fast rate, wrapped around my spinal cord, so I was unable to walk. The cyst had to be removed as soon as possible.

As I was one of the youngest people, globally, to have had this type of cyst in the spine, the incredible doctors tried a new method of treatment. Usually this type of cyst would be treated by replacing parts of my spine with metal, but as I was so young they did not want to stunt my growth and make me undergo further yearly operations. They took a bone graft from my hip and after a 10-hour operation, the cyst, together with most of two lower vertebrae, were successfully removed.

I then spent weeks on flat bed rest followed by months in full body plaster then a brace. I spent a lot of time in and out of the RNOH and was finally signed off at the age of 18 with the operation having been a great success.

Without the amazing staff at RNOH, particularly my lead consultant Mr Kai Rezajooi, it was almost certain that I would have been paralysed, if I managed to survive at all. The RNOH charity fund improvements for patient and staff experience, but also fund clinical research, which allowed my consultants to create a research paper on my treatment to be shared across the world, and help other children like me.

I have been training hard for my first half marathon which has been a real challenge having not run for years, and never run this distance. I am very grateful to be able to run at all and would hugely appreciate any donations to help other young people like me in the future. The charity work incredibly hard at supporting the hospital, who carry out life saving treatments for over 120,000 patients from around the world every year. Your donations can continue to support the life-changing work of the hospital.