My partner Isabel was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in her
early 20’s. The diagnosis came after many years of testing through the NHS, and
I’ve seen first-hand the day-to-day struggles that Fibromyalgia can bring. One
day she can live a seemingly healthy and pain-free life and the next she can be
bed bound, unable to move her body without suffering chronic pain as a result.

The challenge I originally set was to hike 150 miles from the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, back to my family home in Chelmsford, Essex. After much consideration, I've changed the challenge from a hike to a bike ride back home. I went on a 30-mile practise hike and realised the enormity of the challenge I'd set myself to do with such a short period of time to properly train. After just 30 miles my feet were blistered, and I was struggling to walk much further. Instead, I'm going to cycle the route but reduce the days down to 2. To make this ride that much harder, the bike that I have is a fixed gear bike. This means that the bike doesn't have any gears and this then makes any sort of hill that much harder. This is a route that will cover around 150 miles with the idea to cycle 75 miles each day. I've chosen 2 days to push myself to the point of physical exhaustion in order to try and have a better understanding of how Fibromyalgia sufferers can feel on a day-to-day basis. 

Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition of widespread pain and
profound fatigue, recognised by the NHS and thought to affect 1 in 20 people across
the UK. Currently, there is no medication that can be taken to ease the symptoms
of this condition and instead the focus is on managing the pain through
different techniques and pushing the advice to live a healthy lifestyle with a good
balanced diet (Of course, this can be very difficult to maintain when the condition
worsens). Fibromyalgia Action UK was established in order to provide information
and support to sufferers and their families. In addition, the Association
provides medical information for professionals and operates a national helpline
which is primarily run through unpaid volunteers, in which the majority are
Fibromyalgia sufferers themselves.

I hope to raise around £500 for Fybromyalgia Action UK to
help continue the great work that they currently do.

FMA
UK - Who we are (fibromyalgia-associationuk.org)

Fibromyalgia
- NHS (www.nhs.uk)