Amanda Smith, Jennifer Antonelli and I will be walking 135 miles along the , from to to raise funds for IRHH.  We leave Birmingham on 25 April and aim to reach our destination by 30 April 2010.  Jennifer is the bright spark to thank for the idea; inspired by Eddie Izzard and his marathon feat around the , she didn't need to do much to convince us that if Eddie can do it, so can we!  We will be walking ours though, not running!

It's five years this year since Mick died and we are walking 5 marathons over 5 days in his memory.  Iain Rennie Hospice at Home are celebrating 25 years of home hospice care and because their wonderful nurses helped Mick in the last year of his life we are doing this to raise money for them.

Without the love and support that Mick, myself and our children received from IRHH, things would have been much harder to bear and so much more terrifying.  At times, the speed with which our lives were changing was overwhelming for all of us.  The nurses were, and continue to be, very special people to us.  They helped us all to find the strength within ourselves to deal with what was happening to our family and they were there all the time, whenever we needed them.

I shall be walking on what would have been our 25th wedding anniversary with my wonderfully supportive girlfriends and we couldn't think of a better tribute to Mick and to the amazing work of the exceptional and inspiring Iain Rennie nurses.  We also would like to acknowledge the 'backroom support' of our fantastic husbands, partners and children for supporting us and letting us take time out to achieve our goal - thanks guys!!

Thank you for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page, your support and encouragement is very much appreciated.

Karen Buchanan

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