We love the Pen, but its hard surface is unforgiving to knees and elbows. Giving it a brand new mulitcoloured mulitpurpose polymeric surface would be kinder to tumbling athletes, and also let us use it for even more sports and even more fun. But it will cost a lot to update it, and we need your help to raise the money.

We would like you to dream up a sporting challenge for yourself (and your friends) and get some sponsorship. You could run your first 5k, do a big swim or bike ride, play non stop football for a whole day, anything counts. You can make your own sponsorship page or just share this link.

At the same time, the kids are trying to walk the distance to Tokyo round the Pen, and fundraising via their crowdfunding site. It's over 9000 miles, and one mile is 16 laps of the Pen so this really is a huge challenge!

Updates and information on the Pen page on the FoD website, and any questions just email us at friendsofdalmain@gmail.com. Thank you so much!