Hi all! 

As some of you may know, in late 2019, I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis - which is an inflammatory arthritis where the main symptom is back pain, and although it might sound simple, living with it is actually the opposite, made only worse by the fact that to date it is not curable but only manageable (and not very efficiently) which means I’ll have to live with it for the rest of my life.  

Constant pain (albeit some days more than others), fatigue, sleep deprivation, anxiety, depression, bowel inflammation, and joint pain are a few of the symptoms that have become a regular part of my day-to-day life.

I’ve found that the best way of getting as much control as possible over this thing, is to keep as active as I can and be as healthy as my body allows me to be. 

So, in the spirit of combining two things that are now very embedded in my life, I decided to take part in another event, this time raising funds for @NASS, (the National Axial Spondyloarthritis Society), which is, the only charity in the UK dedicated to transforming axial SpA (AS) care in the UK.

This is a virtual event (which means it won't get canceled or postponed) happening live with thousands of participants all around the world, and it’s called 4x4x48. The name pretty much says it all, 4 miles, every 4 hours, 48 hours straight. Or in other words, I need to go out 12 times in 48hs and run 6k. 

It starts 4pm on the dot, the 5th of March, and will end at the end of the last run, sometime around 4.30pm on the 7th of March. 

I haven’t trained as much as I would’ve liked to, I’m nowhere near ready as I should be but I won’t back out of it because this really matters to me. 

To me, this is not a race but a little battle against AS, and I might not win the war against AS but I will damn sure win this battle, whatever it takes. 

So, if you’d like to give me a hand with this, it would mean a lot to me. The fundraising page link is below in case you’d like to donate to the cause but if this is not possible, you can still help by sharing this or by joining me on the day for one or several of the runs (lockdown rules would still allow this as it’s exercise with one other person, outdoors) or if you’d like to show some support during the day or whatever you feel like doing, again, it would mean the world to me.  

Sorry for the long post, if you read this far you’re a star and if you didn’t you still are ;)