Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

This June sees the 4 year anniversary of being inspired by my Dad to do the Bob Graham Challenge, raising over £2000 for SRUK. At the time, I never imagined that I would lose my Dad within 6 months. But now seems a good time to challenge myself again in memory of him.

Losing him made all of my family realise just how much life revolved around Dad's scleroderma; the 2-weekly cycle of being on & off antibiotics and arranging social plans around being on them, plus the regular chemotherapy treatment trips to Newcastle and the inevitable chemo hangovers. So life wasn't only hard to adjust to without him, but also hard to adjust to not having the familiar pattern that we'd all got so used to living by.

Ultimately, it wasn't the Scleroderma that got my Dad in the end, although it made him such a complicated case that his lung cancer was only diagnosed 10 days before he died. And that was after being in & out of hospital being treated for pneumonia for two months. 

Dad fought a good fight & never gave up - in fact he was still farming up to the very end from his bed, and we all had a very special final week with him.

This challenge will see me walk 100km over 2 days on 24 & 25 June. No mountains this time, but this will see me walk about the same distance as the Bob Graham, but over 2 days instead of 5. I've never been to the Cotswolds before, but apparently Mam & Dad once did as a day trip from Cumbria...to see some farm machinery...if you knew my Dad, then this probably wouldn't surprise you!

So this is for you Dad. Miss you so, so much.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.