After being delayed multiple times, I'm finally running the Marathon Des Sables in October 2021. This has been a dream of mine for some years.

For those that don't know, the Marathon Des Sables is a multistage ultra marathon across the Sahara desert where you have to run and carry all of your food and clothes for a week in the desert for 250kms.

In the words of the MDS:

The Marathon des Sables is the stuff of legends – a truly gruelling multi-stage adventure in one of the world’s most inhospitable environments, the Sahara Desert. It is indisputably the Toughest Footrace on Earth. Physically, it is six days’ running over 250 kms (156 miles) across endless sand dunes, rocky jebels and white-hot salt plains, carrying what you need to survive on your back. Mentally, it is the ultimate challenge – an experience like no other in the world. 

This is a really personal adventure. One of my main inspirations for running this race is my mother. She has been battling with Multiple Sclerosis for over 25 years now, having been diagnosed when we were living in Oman as children, and even though her ability to walk and move around has slowly receded over the years she has an infectiously positive attitude towards everything. She is an adventurer at heart and I know that this would be something that she would do if she could. I'm so grateful to be able compete in something so physically extraordinary as this.

I've thought long and hard about the charity I wanted to support for this race - one that makes a real difference. 

INARA works with conflict impacted children in Lebanon and Turkey who have suffered from physical and psychological harm. INARA fully covers and finances beneficiaries’ medical treatment, giving them free of charge care until they are fully healed from their injuries. Simultaneously, INARA provides case management and mental health services to combat trauma and provide holistic care and a support system for the child and their family. INARA's vision is a world where no child impacted by conflict is left untreated. Please help me reach my goal and donate to change a child’s life.

All their operational costs are covered by two patrons, so all donations go directly to actual cases. Please see their work at www.inara.org

Also please follow my journey at @trailrunningme on instagram. 

Thank you!