I have decided to take-up the Country Walking, Walk 1000 Miles 2018 challenge... with a little help and support from Lia, my German Shepherd.

I love walking on Exmoor and Lia does too, so what better way to raise funds for two brilliant local causes than to challenge ourselves to complete at least 1000 miles during 2018 and invite people to sponsor us?

Engage is a charity that helps other charities and community groups in lots of ways, from giving advice about setting-up and deciding whether to register as a charity, company or social enterprise; to finding volunteers and, how and where to raise the money they need. Supporting these groups needs funding too and, so many of them say that they couldn't do what they do without Engage.

In Minehead, our lifeboat crew and supporters need to raise a whopping £52,000 to replace the existing D-class lifeboat, when it comes to the end of its working life in December 2019. The guys at the lifeboat are really good at raising money but, we thought they could probably do with a hand on this one.

So here we are, Lia and I. We reckon that £1,000 split between the two causes would be a nice round amount (of course, more would be even better) and, it works out at £1 per mile of the challenge.

We do hope you're up for the challenge too and will help us to reach our target. You can follow our progress on our blog and you might even fancy joining us on one of our walks.