If you’re wondering, Helen Bamber is related to me: she is my mother and established the HBF in 2005 to work with victims of trafficking and other human rights abuses. She has been working with the victims of the worst atrocities that humans can inflict on other humans since the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in 1945. The HBF is a small, unique charity that works with the most vulnerable, powerless and invisible people in society who have suffered unimaginable inhumanity at the hands of others.

I don’t normally run for charity but on this occasion the challenge is real, difficult and unique. It is called the Bob Graham Round (see http://www.bobgrahamclub.org.uk/) and is one of the toughest long distance fell-running challenges in the UK. It is 66 miles horizontally but, more importantly, 8200 m vertical ascent, over 42 peaks in the Lake District, and must be completed within 24 hours. I am hoping to do the round on 22 June. Two thirds of attempts are unsuccessful and the weather and navigation play a critical role in success or failure. I’ve been training hard but it’s difficult to train for something that is quite so long and quite so hilly when you live down south and have a full time job! You could sponsor me per mile, per peak, per 100 m of ascent or whatever you feel is appropriate. There is no guarantee of success but I will give it my best shot and your donations will add an extra incentive and motivation to go the distance. I'll update the page after the attempt to let you know how I got on.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

 

LATEST NEWS: we were planning to do the run on the w/end of 22/23 June but the forecast looks atrocious so we have moved the date back by two weeks to 6/7 July. Report on how we got in will follow shortly after the attempt. Jonathan.

LATEST NEWS: report on our attempt. So we made our attempt on the BGR, starting at 5.00 am on Saturday 6th July. The weather was near perfect, with clear skies, low wind and not too hot, at least higher up. However, there had been a lot of rain in the weeks before and the ground was still saturated so we got wet feet early on and they didn't dry out. As a consequence we got pretty bad blisters after about 40 miles on the go and they gradually got worse and worse. In hindsight more sock changes would have been a good idea!

We were going well for the first two legs (out of five) and were on schedule at that point but on the third and longest leg we lost some time and by the time we started leg 4 we were about 2 hours behind schedule with little prospect of making up that time as it started to get dark and we had some very rough terrain over steep mountains to negotiate. About 2/3rd of the way into leg four we abaondoned our attempt and hobbled our way to the roadhead where our next rendeszous point was which we reach after almost exactly 24 hours on the go.

Although disappointed we didn't do the whole thing we were still pleased to have done 36 of the 42 peaks and about 55 miles and 7500 m of ascent. Given the small mistakes we made on the way, which all added up, we are confident we could get round the whole course if we avoided those next time.

You can see some photos from our attempt at https://www.dropbox.com/sh/1dyo4v1dgbppmhy/REeDnMZcBa