The Challenge

This November, I will be part of a team attempting to cover a combined distance of 2400km over a 24 hour period. We will be using eight gym machines (ergometers, cycling machines and treadmills) concurrently and continuously. There are 64 members of my Social (School House) and three resident staff, so this will mean that I personally will have to take at least five half-hour turns on one of the machines. Together, we plan to travel at an average speed of 100km/hour over the 24 hours, so everybody will contribute to the target, whether rowing on an ergometer in the first slot on Saturday 3rd November at 6pm, or running on a treadmill at 4am, or cycling home the finishing straight at 5.30pm on Sunday 4th November in the final session of the day.

 

The Charities

We are doing this in aid of three charities. We hope to raise a significant sum of money for their causes, but we realise this depends entirely upon the generosity and support of those we are writing to. We have chosen to support Rosie’s Rainbow Fund, Helen and Douglas House, and Friends of Amasango. Rosie’s Rainbow Fund supports sick and disabled children and their families in local hospitals, schools, and in the community, operating particularly at the John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital in Oxford, the Royal Berks Hospital in Reading and Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury. Helen House and Douglas House are Oxfordshire hospices which care for children and young adults with life-shortening conditions and support their families; they offer specialist symptom and pain management, medically-supported short breaks and end-of-life care. Friends of Amasango is a charity that supports Amasango Career School, which provides an access to education for some of South Africa’s most vulnerable street children; the school not only gives children access to food, clothing, toiletries and shelter, but, crucially, gives them the opportunity to build themselves a promising future through education.

 

 Sponsorship

We will be very grateful indeed for any support you can give us and our charities. There are three ways you can sponsor us. You can give a one-off donation direct to our charities online through our website. But if you’d like to really spur me on, you can sponsor me personally for every kilometre I cover during the challenge. And if you’d like to spur us all on even more, you can also sponsor D Social (the whole team) for every kilometre we cover over the 24 hours. This way you can be sure we will continue to work as hard as possible right up to the last minute, even if we reach our target before our time is up.

Please visit [ http://www.dsocial.co.uk ]www.dsocial.co.uk for more information if you would like to donate in any of these ways.

 

The logistics of the operation are complicated, the exercise itself will be exhausting, but it will be well worth it for the significant support we will be giving to three very worthwhile causes. Thank you for reading and for your help.