I'm fundraising for Barts Charity to support the amazing hospitals of Barts Health NHS Trust (St Bartholomew's, The Royal London, Mile End, Whipps Cross and Newham). 

As most of you will know (because I have not stopped talking about it) I had a bit of a medical emergency last October and the incredible work of the staff at the three Barts Trust hospitals I spent time at saved my life. I had a massive pulmonary embolism (life threatening blood clots on the lungs) that meant I had to have emergency surgery and was placed in a medically induced coma for 4 days before I started the long old recovery process. At the same time I discovered I have a blood condition that means I will always be under the care of the Trust and will need ongoing medication and treatment for life.....so yeah I feel like I owe them a little fundraising.

On 22 October 2020 it will be a year since I was first admitted and whilst I am still on the journey to recovery I am ready to start fundraising to give back and raise awareness surrounding the dangers of Pulmonary Embolisms. 

My plan is to eventually build back up to doing a full marathon (did I mention that I run?!) to help raise vital funds but as 'Rona has other ideas I have decided on my 'admissionaversary' I am going to do my own run. I am planning to run the route that I took in the ambulances to each hospital, which is just over 15 miles:

My flat > Whipps Cross - 0.8 miles

Whipps Cross > Royal London - 5.6 miles

Royal London > St Barts - 2 miles

St Barts > My flat - 7 miles

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Challenge update:

I am feeling incredibly grateful for all of the donations so far. I have decided to extend the challenge for the 10 days I was in hospital I will be running a different section of the journey (I wont always pick 0.8 miles I promise). I will then be doing my first race in over a year - this will be the 'run through' Olympic Park half marathon. This race means a lot to me because the last race I did before I was admitted to hospital was a run through half and I had to pull out after a mile or so because I couldn't breath. The perfect come back race.

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It would be great if you are able to donate but also I would love it if you would join me with the challenge by either running, walking or cycling the full distance or the distance of one of the journeys - this can be done anytime between the 22nd and 31st (the dates I spent in hospital) and can be done in any chunk you fancy - all I ask is that you shout out to anyone who will listen about the symptoms for PEs and the risks involved - a handy NHS page on this is here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/pulmonary-embolism/ 

The main symptoms are shortness of breath accompanied with leg pain - which as I found out the hard way can very easily be mistaken for a chest infection or a pulled muscle.

Your donation will help make things better for patients and staff, by funding things like state-of-the-art equipment, innovative healthcare projects or ground-breaking medical research. Thank you for your support. Together, we can make extraordinary healthcare happen.

Lots of love, Beth xxx