I was told recently about an 11 year old girl who was losing weight and kept falling asleep at school.  Her teachers became concerned and realised that something must be wrong at home.  It turned out she was exhausted because she was looking after her mother who had terminal cancer and her brother who had cerebral palsy.  She was so busy caring for her mother and brother she didn't have time to eat and sleep at home.  

The Friends of Young Carers supports young people who look after others because others because of illness, frailty, disability or problems with drugs and alcohol. Imagine how tough it is growing up in a household where the child is the carer. 

My sister Kate is a cancer nurse who sees children caring for their parents every day and the toll this takes on their lives. Young Carers is one of those unfashionable charities that does really important work. Over 200,000 young people live in households where they are caring for someone else. 

To mark my 50th birthday I will compete in 4 races culminating in a first (and only) full Ironman in Sweden in August. This isn't an excuse for a holiday. I've been working up to this for 2 years and try to train for an hour a day. Until 2 years ago I could not swim front crawl and I am not looking forward to a 2.4 mile swim in the Baltic, or even sure I can complete it!

The Bath Half Marathon  was the first event 2nd March.  I completed this in a time of 1:34, which is my best time for a half marathon. So I may be older but also faster!

On 14th May I completed the Mallorca 70.3 Half Ironman (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13 mile run) in 5.45hrs.

On 21st June Heather Jackson and I won the mixed pairs category in the Norfolk Superhero. Thank you Heather!! (1 mile sea swim, 4 mile kayak, 55 mile bike, 7 mile run).  

On the 16th August I will do a full Ironman in Sweden (2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a marathon)

Please sponsor me