Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

The Freedom Trail was used by the French resistance to smuggled downed aircrew (amongst others, especially Jews) into Spain, and thus back to the UK. It is a tough trail through the Pyrenees, over 6,500' altitude (2000m) most of the way, and includes some Via Ferrata.

The reason I chose this adventure is I wanted a genuine challenge; . I feel this pays respect to the generation that risked or lost their lives for our freedom, and hopefully a bigger challenge would raise a substantial amount of money for Myaware.

In the one week trip there were 2 big days of nearly 10 hours walking; doing more than climbing Snowdon twice, carrying everything we needed for the afternoon of one day. The following day was then over 500m of descending, before climbing more than doing Ben Nevis carrying everything we needed except the tents. We had to do the pre 1943 trail for that day as the high level route had too much snow for us to get through; our route had more climbing! There were also 2 other days of walking; the last one still being a more than doing Snowdon. The photograph of me in the Myaware T Shirt was taken at the France-Spain border on the last day at our highest point, 2,300m (the original route would have taken us to 2,600m).

The reason for choosing the Myaware is that one of my sisters has Myasthenia Gravis; it has a dramatic impact on what she can/can't do on a day to day basis and little is understood about the disease though it affects about 1 in 10,000 people in the UK. It can be fatal which I'm pleased to say isn't so in my sister's case.

I added the photo of an Avro Lancaster, as my Grandfather flew in them during WW2. He survived the war but died in 1976; the family still have his log book and some uniform/flying gear. The photograph of aircraft wreckage was taken at about 2,100m where a Halifax Bomber crashed in early 1945, killing all the crew, part of the reason I wanted to do this specific trek. We had to climb over 700m from the camp site to visit it, but was well worth it, and part of my tribute.

My advice to anyone thinking of doing one of these challenges is to go for it! But then do the preparation/training; it saves so much pain and heartache, and means you enjoy the views!