The Emmaus Road (Weymouth) Ltd is a charitable trust (1149643) that offers a Saturday night “ Soup Kitchen”, providing a 3 course meal, listening, prayer, hats, gloves and warm clothing to homeless people.

Last year I listened to a presentation at our local church about homeless people in Weymouth. At the time, there were approximately 400 vulnerably housed/street homeless in the Park District/ Melcombe Regis ward of Weymouth, which I found very shocking. These are people of all ages, from all backgrounds. A story of a 16 yr old boy really touched my heart.

At the time when I listened to this it was a cold winters day and just thinking about people that possibly had no home, let alone food, made me want to do something about it. I remember feeling visibly shocked that I didn't realise this and also very grateful that I was lucky enough not to be in that situation myself.

Established over 7 yrs ago, Pauline Wilks and her amazing team of volunteers work in partnership with local authorities such as the council and the police. The view was to make initial contact and reach those vulnerable in this way in our town offering friendship, food and ultimately a step up and out of the trap of poverty and homelessness. They serve between 5 - 35 different people every week.

I have set myself the challenge of trying to complete the Ironman 70.3 Weymouth on 11th September 2016, which involves 1.2 mile sea swim (I'm petrified of jellyfish, I mean really petrified!) 56 mile bike ride (I have only very recently started to ride a road bike; this petrifies me too!) and a 13.1 mile run (can generally run, but after all of the other stuff before, how on earth will I do that?!!)

In order to make this a worthwhile challenge, I wanted to raise some money for a project that is close to my heart, plus raise awareness for a situation that I wasn't aware of on our own doorstep and everywhere.

Any amount would be gratefully received.

Lots of love

Kim xx