War Child is a small international charity that provides life-changing impartial support to the most vulnerable children whose families, communities and schools have been torn apart by war. War Child not only provides safe spaces but empowers children through education, training and advocacy.  

I feel very luck to be able to raise funds for War Child (please sponser me!) by being part of the CMS team who is skiing the Engadin ski marathon (which I naively see as combining a few of my favourite things - snow, XC and racing - though, of course, I do recognise it's not the type of XC I'm familiar with and I won't be anywhere close to good enough at this type of XC to actually race it!) 

The Engadin ski marathon is the London Marathon of ski marathons with over 10,000 participants. There's even fancy dress involved. It takes place in the Engadin valley, Switzerland - starting in Maloja, passing St Moritz and finishing 42km later in S-chanf. Apparently the most spectacular part of the course is the descent into Pontresina - spectacular because of the number of falls and crashes by skiers. 'Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall' is the advice I've received for this section. 

To help keep me upright on that descent - and to generally get me through the 42 km (I haven't been on XC skis since I was about 8) - I've enrolled in a roller skate-skiing course in Hyde Park. Three weeks in and I'm not finding it so easy - and I'm finding the the pavement particularly hard! The instructor tells me that eventually it just 'clicks'. I hope so. But even then I have no idea how it will translate to the real thing on snow. I guess I'll find out on the 13th of March!

So please sponsor me - your sponsorship can change lives!