Why I’m Running: Katelin Savannah May Botticelli

This post was submitted by Disney Princess Half Marathon Charity Runner Silje Eikrem for Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals through childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.org/guest-post. 

Our little princess was born on 02/23/2010. She was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. She was born at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in St Petersburg, Florida. We got to cuddle her, hold her and spend nine days with her. Her stats started dropping and she needed open heart surgery on day nine. Unfortunately, her little body could not hold on and she passed 15 hours after surgery. We wish we could have spent so many more days with our little warrior but were incredibly happy we got the days we did. I will be running the Disney Princess Half Marathon in memory of my princess as her birthday is that weekend. I am a charity runner and raised money for the hospitals that do so much for all these children. The nurses and Dr were amazing at the hospital!