Raising funds for Bowel Cancer UK. 

November/ December 2010

 

Hello!

Well we did it!! We raised over £20k for Bowel Cancer UK and can happily hand over the money to fund their new website. Every penny has gone to the charity as I did pay for the trek myself- any more donations will be gratefully received by Bowel Cancer UK I know. The money we raised has come from a number of sources

Online sponsorship donations: £8465

Offline sponsorship donations: £1200

The Big B bash: £9300

Grant Warden and Derek Welford walking across Hadrian’s Wall: £1600

We have more to come in as several people have organised fund raising initiatives and some promised to donate once they knew I hadn’t wimped out and did walk the full length of the trek! I promise I did!

I am deeply grateful to everyone who has made a donation, given their time (especially Sue Warden), provided me with inspiration and been behind me all the way. I couldn’t have done anything without my fabulous friends and family- what more is there to live for?

The trek was very challenging- certainly the most difficult I have done. It was wet (I ran out of socks but managed to find a shop to buy some new ones- left) which I suppose might have been expected in a rainforest to be honest. There seemed to be a lot more of going uphill than downhill (that can’t be true really as we went from coast to coast)

 It was very muddy! And there were a number of rivers to cross (preferably not wearing your boots or you find you have wet socks for the rest of the week-doh!) It was hot and humid but at least I think we all smelt the same

The original route had been devastated by landslides so we didn’t actually walk any of the planned paths which presented its own challenges.  We trekked 105 km in total (vs 80km in the initial plan) from the Pacific across the country which doesn’t seem to be a lot in 7 days does it?! One day we only walked 13km in 10 hours because the mud was so deep and difficult

We then white water rafted and boated the rest of the way to the Caribbean. I really loved the group I walked with – just good, decent people each with their own mission and story

When I booked the trek, we didn’t have mum’s cancer diagnosis. It has given me a unique opportunity to raise some money for Bowel Cancer UK which isn’t a very sexy cancer charity at all. 37,500 people are diagnosed each year with bowel cancer, with 16,000 deaths, making it the second most common cause of cancer deaths in the UK. I think something like 37% of bowel cancers aren’t discovered until they have spread to the liver (as in my mother’s case)

Mum continues to be a fantastic source of inspiration and is doing well at the moment. Thank you Mum- I did the easy bit. And thank you to everyone who helped. I am deeply grateful

Love Ann

xx