68 days in...96 to go
On Friday 13th April, I started a running challenge with Dan; running at least one mile every day for the entire English cricket season. That's 166 days; it's a long time to run without having a single rest day. Are we mad? Crazy? Stupid? All three, but we thought long and hard about our challenge before setting ourselves up to complete it in a spectacular fashion. In the words of the great Jason Donovan, I've listed 10 good reasons below why we are doing what we are doing and I genuinely hope that it will help raise awareness and the money in our pot overall!
1) We're raising money for three charities - Macmillan Cancer Support, Sheffield Hospital Charity and Bedford Hospital Charity. All three of these charities have played a pivotal role in our lives the past 12 months
2) Without fundraising, these charities cannot operate effectively. Thanks to previous fund raising efforts, Sheffield Hospitals Charity have purchased a Specialised Ultrasound Processor which can detect early signs of pancreatic cancer, the fifth most common cause of cancer related deaths in the UK. In Sheffield alone, this piece of equipment can save 800 lives a year. Just think what it could do UK wide if every hospital had one of those.
3) A new MRI Scanner has been provided to Bedford Hospital; an MRI scan can detect cardiovascular diseases to neurological cancers. This has cost £1 million...again thanks to previous fundraisers efforts.
4) Macmillan, one of the biggest cancer charities offer everything from counselling to help patients cope with their recent cancer diagnosis to offering financial advice if you are no longer able to work due to your illness.Their coffee mornings have become famous in the UK for raising awareness of those people and their families who are suffering from cancer.
5) We're doing it for our health & well being - never have I felt so fit by running every day. I don't feel an over-riding desire to enter in for a load of events to fill up my social calendar. I am taking a regular lunch break by running a couple of miles, I'm trying (in vain!) to eat more sensibly rather than compensate my bad eating on doing increased exercise. And its working slowly but surely.
6) The cricket season is very close to my heart. From an early age, I was subjected to picnics at the boundary which developed into a scoring job at my Dad & brother's local cricket team at the age of ten. Which led me to all sorts of opportunities; by the time I went to university, I was scoring for a first class county (Loughborough), passed two scoring qualifications from the ACU&S and had a regular gig a few times during the summer for Surrey 2's. Not bad for someone who struggled to get that elusive C grade in Maths GCSE.
7) My father in law always told me how immensely proud he was of Dan when he started running. During my maternity leave, I lived in Leighton Buzzard and every week, I used to take Megan to see Mick. By this time, Mick had been suffering from hydrocephalus and complications with diabetes so seeing us became a permanent fixture as he'd taken early retirement. We'd sometimes have lunch and if he was feeling up to it, we'd go out. Without fail, each week, he would ask about our running and show a real keen enthusiasm for what we had done and achieved each week.
8) We have had tremendous backing and support from our respective families. From babysitting duties at home to taking us to different places where we can enjoy different scenery whilst running. They've been the first to throw some money into our pot when we opened our fundraising page and it means the world. A special shout out to my brother who ran a 5k in 27 minutes along Loch Goil (which is far from flat) only a mere 3 months after breaking his arm quite spectacularly.
9) Both of our Dad's never complained about being in pain at any point. So when I tripped over my foot in my new shoes on only the second day of the challenge in front of teenage boys who found it incredibly funny, I didn't cry. I just kept thinking about how much bloody pain both our Dad's were in and how they must have hurt deep inside when the medical professionals couldn't help them anymore.
10) Between my Dad passing and my father in law passing, it was exactly 166 days.
I've even started subjecting our poor dog Baxter on these runs. The picture below just shows him after his first one miler which he does at least twice a week with us. Running up a mountain overlooking Loch Goil was one of the most picturesque runs I've ever done. Completing a half marathon on May Day Bank Holiday in Milton Keynes was a lot of fun especially as I only agreed to do it at 7:30 that morning. Running the mile the next day was not.
Our link is https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-portal//fundraiserPage?pageId=900814
We appreciate every one of your pennies and good wishes.
1) We're raising money for three charities - Macmillan Cancer Support, Sheffield Hospital Charity and Bedford Hospital Charity. All three of these charities have played a pivotal role in our lives the past 12 months
2) Without fundraising, these charities cannot operate effectively. Thanks to previous fund raising efforts, Sheffield Hospitals Charity have purchased a Specialised Ultrasound Processor which can detect early signs of pancreatic cancer, the fifth most common cause of cancer related deaths in the UK. In Sheffield alone, this piece of equipment can save 800 lives a year. Just think what it could do UK wide if every hospital had one of those.
3) A new MRI Scanner has been provided to Bedford Hospital; an MRI scan can detect cardiovascular diseases to neurological cancers. This has cost £1 million...again thanks to previous fundraisers efforts.
4) Macmillan, one of the biggest cancer charities offer everything from counselling to help patients cope with their recent cancer diagnosis to offering financial advice if you are no longer able to work due to your illness.Their coffee mornings have become famous in the UK for raising awareness of those people and their families who are suffering from cancer.
5) We're doing it for our health & well being - never have I felt so fit by running every day. I don't feel an over-riding desire to enter in for a load of events to fill up my social calendar. I am taking a regular lunch break by running a couple of miles, I'm trying (in vain!) to eat more sensibly rather than compensate my bad eating on doing increased exercise. And its working slowly but surely.
6) The cricket season is very close to my heart. From an early age, I was subjected to picnics at the boundary which developed into a scoring job at my Dad & brother's local cricket team at the age of ten. Which led me to all sorts of opportunities; by the time I went to university, I was scoring for a first class county (Loughborough), passed two scoring qualifications from the ACU&S and had a regular gig a few times during the summer for Surrey 2's. Not bad for someone who struggled to get that elusive C grade in Maths GCSE.
7) My father in law always told me how immensely proud he was of Dan when he started running. During my maternity leave, I lived in Leighton Buzzard and every week, I used to take Megan to see Mick. By this time, Mick had been suffering from hydrocephalus and complications with diabetes so seeing us became a permanent fixture as he'd taken early retirement. We'd sometimes have lunch and if he was feeling up to it, we'd go out. Without fail, each week, he would ask about our running and show a real keen enthusiasm for what we had done and achieved each week.
8) We have had tremendous backing and support from our respective families. From babysitting duties at home to taking us to different places where we can enjoy different scenery whilst running. They've been the first to throw some money into our pot when we opened our fundraising page and it means the world. A special shout out to my brother who ran a 5k in 27 minutes along Loch Goil (which is far from flat) only a mere 3 months after breaking his arm quite spectacularly.
9) Both of our Dad's never complained about being in pain at any point. So when I tripped over my foot in my new shoes on only the second day of the challenge in front of teenage boys who found it incredibly funny, I didn't cry. I just kept thinking about how much bloody pain both our Dad's were in and how they must have hurt deep inside when the medical professionals couldn't help them anymore.
10) Between my Dad passing and my father in law passing, it was exactly 166 days.
I've even started subjecting our poor dog Baxter on these runs. The picture below just shows him after his first one miler which he does at least twice a week with us. Running up a mountain overlooking Loch Goil was one of the most picturesque runs I've ever done. Completing a half marathon on May Day Bank Holiday in Milton Keynes was a lot of fun especially as I only agreed to do it at 7:30 that morning. Running the mile the next day was not.
Our link is https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fundraiser-portal//fundraiserPage?pageId=900814
We appreciate every one of your pennies and good wishes.
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