Dear All

Thankyou so much for sponsoring me for last weeks Marathon de Sables. I now understand why it is called "The Toughest Foot Race on Earth"!! 849 runners set off & I believe 801 returned with a medal (me included!). We spent 8 days in the desert of which 6 were running. This years MdS was the longest & hottest on record! We covered 150.7 miles & temperatures actually reached 54 degrees C on 2 days!

I felt fine throughout the event apart from my poor poor feet which are still a shredded mess! I developed blisters on top of blisters (around 25 in total) & had to make some serious surgical adjustments to my shoes in order to get them on my poor bandaged feet! Still I managed to hobble around somehow & continue to hobble around at home.

Life in the desert was tough: long hot & sometime windy days, endless sand dunes or rocky terrain, extremely basic tent accomodation & toilet facilities (enough said!). Eating self cooked space food & no wash facilities, emotional highs & lows but all shared with 7 wonderful people (my tent mates).

Thanks again all! I am going to now burn all my running kit & take up knitting!!

I have decided to raise money for a charity set up by service men who were serving in Afghanistan, called Nowzad dogs. All money that I raise is going to the charity.

To see a short video about my challenge, please click the attached link:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItSUNaCvOH8

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.