As someone who lost a parent at a very young age and I am now
a father of two little girls myself I can empathise fully with this goals of the Ruth Strauss Foundation. Bereavement is not something any child or their remaining families should have to face but for some unfortunate families this is a sad reality. The Ruth Strauss Foundation provides extensive valuable support, which is key to minimising long-term harm to the family members. Obviously this much needed specialised support is expensive to fund - so please friends lets dig deep to help. 

Here is my challenge – I am going to attempt a double
marathon distance of 90km of overnight cross-country ski racing between Salen and Mora in the middle of Sweden. For the XC anoraks this is the skate style sister
race to the famous classic Vasaloppet. Needless to say this is no minor undertaking and a daunting challenge for me as a Brit with only a small amount of amateur 5km sprint race and roller skiing experience. My Scandinavian teammates
have assured me that I will be fine and as you all know, I am very determined! My on-going training and preparation has been long and extensive and even if I have to crawl, I WILL FINISH. However, I am hoping to avoid this because the combination of minus 20 degrees C temperatures, snow and crawling is none too appealing.

https://www.vasaloppet.se/lopp/skidlopp/nattvasan90/

My challenge is entirely self-funding so every penny raised
will be donated to the very worthy Ruth Strauss Foundation via Just-Giving – so please dig deep for this very sad but excellent cause.