It’s difficult to know where you should draw the line when asking people for cash for a charity that they may have no personal links to.  Ultimately when something strikes you as unfair and your goal is simply to help those that find themselves in a similar position, then maybe it’s ok to draw the line a little further out.

I am fund raising for two charities.  Perhaps split your donation across the two or just pick the one;

At the end of last year my brother, Simon, completed a 60 mile running race with a sore stomach.  4 months later, at 47 years old, he died of pancreatic cancer, leaving his young family.  Pancreatic Cancer has the single highest fatality rate of all cancers partly due to the little amount of research done on the disease.

This is why your money would be so valued.

www.justgiving.com/adamwake

While we were at Simon's funeral, 2 weeks later, a family in our small community in Australia lost their few month old baby daughter, Ashlee, to SIDS - Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.  Despite continued efforts to resuscitate her and an air ambulance to the nearest hospital, she did not survive.  Her mum and dad did not manage to get a photo of Ashlee smiling as she had only just started to that very week.

SIDS is also extremely under researched and little is known as to why some children simply do not wake up.  Ashlee did not get much of a chance but with your donation maybe some other children will.

I decided on the return journey from the funeral to commit to this race but didn’t know much about it.  Since then I have spoken to people that have tried.

Annually there are only in the region of 70 odd people that start – 30 of these will drop out.  A chap that completed the event last year assures me that it is the single toughest foot race in the world making the MdS (Marathon des Sables) seem comparitively "easy".

I cried during the MdS!

Among the worst bits of the jungle run are jungle wasps, swimming sections of river & swamp carrying everything you need (c. 15kg) for the week including all food, hammock, sleeping bag, cooking gear, and emergency & medical stuff.  The fact that the body struggles to disperse heat with 90% humidity because the air is already saturated is also pretty bad.  In this case the body takes emergency measures and shuts down, effectively making you pass out and fall over.

www.junglemarathon.com

Some of you have seen my feet at the best of times; can you imagine what they’re going to look like on my return?  Yum Yum

Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths gets your money faster and, if you’re a taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.

Please note that I am covering all of my own costs.

Thanks

Adam