It's that time of year when I make the mad decision to walk 100km from London to Brighton. On 27th May, I'll be aiming to beat last year's time of 28 hours and complete the walk (hopefully) uninjured.

I'm walking to raise money for the Hope Project, an NGO, based in Thessaloniki, set up by my cousin Eleanor Yankah and Tania De Sousa, and run with a team of volunteers.

Ellie and Tania met a year ago whilst volunteering in Idomeni where 12,000 displaced refugees were stuck on the northern border between Macedonia and Greece. After meeting they continued to volunteer together, travelling back to Greece every month distributing aid whilst creating bonds and building trusting relationships.

Since their travels back and forth from the UK to Greece, they've set up the Hope Project that seeks to equip and empower displaced children and adults through informal, creative educational programmes which include Maths, Science, English, Sports, Art and Arabic, as well as a Life Skills integration programme specifically designed for young people and adults. Hope Project aims to provide a safe environment and a platform where people can develop and contribute towards the project, society and their own future.

Ellie, Tania, the Hope Project and all its volunteers have come a huge way since that first meeting in March 2016. They've organised fundraiser events, collected donations, worked in partnership with other charitable organisations, been named as Elle UK's #1 runner up female activists of the year, and secured their own building, refurbished it and built classrooms from scratch. I'm walking 100km from London to Brighton to help them continue on their mission in Thessaloniki.

You can follow their journey and find out more at www.hopeproject.net, @hopeprojectnet (Twitter and Instagram).