I first came across the Thames Path Challenge when I was going for a run one Sunday morning. On the towpath, about a mile outside Henley, I passed a couple of walkers who were wearing "100k" T-shirts. I then saw another group ahead of me, wearing similar T-shirts, and I asked them if they were walking 100k that day. The answer was yes, but they had actually started in Putney the previous day and they were now nearly at the 99k mark! 

That got me intrigued - I used to live in south west London near Putney; now I live in Henley and I frequently go for runs along the towpath - the Thames Path Challenge seemed to be the perfect event for me.

I am hugely relieved to have my great friend Karl, who I've known for 30 years, walking the full 100k with me. He is a veteran of several marathons and iron men events, and he has even done one of these 100k walks before and lived to tell the tale! So it will be Karl's job to pick me up when I collapse after 15 hours of solid walking (which will only be two-thirds of the way through!) Or, perhaps more likely, he'll decide to run the last 30k at the point when I start moaning a little too much about feeling tired....

We are very pleased that we managed to persuade my lovely sister, Jessica, to walk the first 50k with us. She is a social worker who helps elderly people, many of whom are dementia sufferers. Our father and grandad both had dementia in the later stages of their lives, so it is an illness we are very familiar with. 

Karl also had two grandparents who suffered from dementia and an aunt who is in the advanced stages of Alzheimer's. Dementia UK happens to be the Charity of the Year at Invesco Perpetual, where I work, and it's the ideal choice of charity for the three of us.

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