Hey! This September, I'll be hiking 100km across the top of the South Downs as part of Oxfam Trailwalker 2019. As you might imagine, this is a bit of a tricky thing to do - especially considering it involves going 30 hours without sleep and a standard rucksack only holds a finite amount of caffeinated products, smelling salts and parcel tape for my eyelids.

Luckily, I won't be doing this alone. A team of three trusty companions will be at my side throughout, and between us we'll do our best to keep each other awake and moving. They'll also be the ones phoning the authorities when I pass out - they're the real heroes!

The hike will take us from a country park north of Portsmouth to Brighton racecourse via the South Downs Way. The route will be broken up into ten stages, each of which must be completed within a specified time if we want to stay in the running, with a time limit of 30 hours for the full 100km. Around a third of the hike will take place at night, just for fun. God, the more I type this out the more horrifying it sounds.

Of course, all of this exercise is difficult to justify unless we actually raise donations. For real, this is going to take a serious amount of effort and we'd like it to mean something beyond its personal value to us as an achievement. The money you donate will be split between Oxfam, who provide aid to communities in over 90 countries, and the Gurkha Welfare Trust, which gives health care and social welfare support to the families of Gurkha ex-servicemen in Nepal and the UK.

If you can afford to donate, please do. We're aiming to raise at least £350 each for the charities, but more would be better! 

We'll keep you updated on how we get on. I had thought of live-streaming the whole thing, but shortly afterwards it occurred to me that a) I don't want anyone having a permanent record of just how mortally unfit I am and b) a wobbly 30-hour video of my muddy feet with a soundtrack of near-constant, baroque profanity isn't exactly primetime viewing. You'll just have to make do with the (heavily doctored) post-hike Instagram after we've all had a shower and a handle of vodka.

Thanks for any and all money you can donate. I genuinely appreciate it, and the charities it will support would not be able to do the work they do without donations like yours. It all helps!

See you at the finish line,

Chris