Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

The story goes like this. My housemates set up a running club on Strava and set themselves the challenge of running 100 miles over a week between them, starting on Mon 27th April. They invited me to join this challenge and I declined repeatedly. I am not a sport or fitness fan in any way, preferring the kind of exercise that you do accidentally (dancing, walking, gardening, jumping on a space hopper, etc). However, one of my housemates (MATHEW) piped up saying that he would sponsor me for each mile I ran with the money going to Hands at Work. Well, he got me there didn't he. Before long, my other housemates joined in with similar offers and it became a challenge I couldn't turn down. So now I have 7 days to see how many miles I can run (very slowly).

If you would also like to sponsor me per mile (or just generally), all donations would be gratefully received! All monies go to Hands at Work who care for nearly 8,000 of the most vulnerable people in some of the toughest communities across 8 countries in Africa. Hands have a community-based model of care, where working with the local church, and local African leaders, they provide food, access to education and basic healthcare to these children and families. 

On Tuesday this week it was International Superhero Day. Those of you who know me well will know that I am a bit of a Marvel geek and could talk to you all day about superhero characters. However real-life heroes are way more impressive, and Hands is full of them. There are so many stories I could tell you of Care Workers who start cooking for 150 children at 6am every morning to ensure these kids get a good and healthy meal. Or about members of the Service Centre who cross borders in the middle of the night to rescue children who are being abused. Or our African leaders who hop on the back of a motorbike and travel hours into the mountains to find one of the Hands children who had been sold off into a child marriage. I am continually humbled and challenged by the pure passion, drive and servant-heartedness of these people who often have so little material possessions themselves. Children in the communities that Hands work in are so vulnerable. They don't have the things that we have to protect them. They don't have parents, or a secure home, ID documents, food security, a health clinic, an income, or a guaranteed education. They need superheros like the ones described above to help build this wall of protection around them; to buy them school uniforms so they can go to school, to advocate to the government for them to get ID papers so they can apply for grants, to protect them from people who would do them harm.....and so on.

The current covid situation means that already vulnerable children become even more at risk. You can play a part in helping these children by supporting Hands at Work.

Read more about Hands on the Facebook page or on the website www.handsatwork.org

Back to Bristol. Don't expect wonders or miracles to come from this challenge....if I get to 10 miles I'll be extremely chuffed (and chafed?), so sponsoring me per mile isn't going to spiral out of control! I'll update this page on the evening of Sunday 3rd May with the total number of miles run.

Thanks so much for reading this story. 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.