It was either a red sports car or a marathon and by comparison, the latter is a snip at just £3000. How hard can it be to raise funds in a recession, anyway?!
I'm running for a charity who work to educate schools, health professionals and the food industry to achieve a safer world for people with life-threatening allergies; people like me.
I'd been unconscious for hours following my first experience of anaphylaxis. When I came to, I was in an Emergency ward surrounded by family, neck and arms bruised black where doctors had tried to find a live vein. I still don't know what it was that I ate that caused the reaction. What I do know is that I struggled for breath before losing my sight (temporarily) and then consciousness. Friends then spent a terrifying 20 mins getting me to a hospital, watching as I collapsed and became increasingly blue and lifeless. I spent the next week in Intensive Care thinking that, when well again, I'd run a marathon. Hindsight suggests it was the drugs talking, but that was then (20 years ago), and this is now.
This marathon fundraising effort is an important opportunity for me b/c we have a strong family history of allergy. I hope to raise both money and awareness of anaphylaxis as a serious threat to the daily lives of an increasing percentage of the population.
Thanks for your support!
Jenny
