Bliss is the leading UK charity for babies born premature or sick.

My nephew was born via emergency cesarean section at 31 weeks, weighing just 3lb. He spent over four weeks in a neonatal unit before going home. It was a very tense and stressful time for everyone. Thankfully he is fine and is now a very small, but happy and healthy little boy: he will turn 2 on the day we finish our challenge!

Bliss is a community of parents, families, volunteers, health professionals and researchers working to empower families, influence policy and practice and enable life-changing research. We want to support them to help ensure the sickest and most vulnerable babies in the UK have the best possible start in life. 

To help support these efforts, Chris and I are taking part in The Great Outdoors Challenge, which entails walking across Scotland from Shiel Bridge on the west coast to Montrose on the east coast. Starting on the 13th May, we aim to walk 291km in 14 days carrying all our equipment for the journey. We will be wild camping for the majority of the trip, stopping at hostels for just three nights. 

This will be a considerable challenge as, although we do a fair amount of hill walking, I have only been out for one night (two days walking) and Chris has been out for a maximum of four days. It has therefore entailed a lot of detailed route planning, organisation, and training. 

You can keep up-to-date with our progress here: https://cjoutdoors.wordpress.com/category/tgo-challenge/