Hi, my name is Julia and I'm 16 years old. This summer was meant to be the best of my life so far: just after my GCSE's, extra long and packed full of new, exiting opportunities. As you can probably guess due to Covid-19 this hasn't been the case, however, my two best friends and myself decided to use this summer to help to change other people's lives for the better by walking the South Downs Way in aid of charity.

Sponsorship is a great way to raise money for a good cause, having participated in sponsored events at school we already knew the challenge involved in taking part but we had no idea about the challenge of organising one by ourselves. Even before booking campsites and figuring out what to eat we had to start training. when we started I was struggling to walk 16 km let alone the 160 Km (100 miles) that is needed to walk the South Downs Way. The difficulty is then also increased when you have to do the whole thing carrying a huge backpack, mine weighed in at over 20 Kg. the whole walk will take 8 days to complete starting on the first of august and on the first day we will be walking 31 km.

I decided to raise money for the SIA because it's a cause that is very close to my heart, considering that my mum is spinal cord injured and the work that the SIA does helps to rehabilitate and enrich the lives of so many people like her when they are first discharged from hospital. If I manage to raise my target of £300 it will enable the SIA to provide specialist training to a health or care professional giving them a greater ability to identify, understand  and meet the complex needs of spinal cord injured patients. However if I manage to surpass that target the money raised will enable the SIA to do so much more, for example £600 enables them to advocate on the behalf of a SCI person facing discrimination and £750 enables them to provide specialist advice and guidance and access to an adequate care package following discharge from hospital, which greatly increases the chances of a SCI person being able to regain independence and rebuild their lives.