CHALLENGE COMPLETE - https://1drv.ms/v/s!AuUOUjQgX95MgTXQ4TB4OtbQ9nM8 (a video from my adventure)

I’d like to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research UK, which is the UK's leading dementia research charity, dedicated to causes,  diagnosis, prevention, treatment and cure. I am driven by their vision that “Today, there are no dementia survivors but research can change this.” Effective treatments, and ultimately, a cure, would have made a world of difference for my Mum, Wendy. She was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s before she turned 60, and lives with its life-changing effects.

The disease has taken a lot away from Mum (and Mike) – it’s made life so much harder for them, with Mike now her full-time (and incredible) carer; it’s stolen a big chunk of a retirement they always thought they’d enjoy together. It’s easy, and understandable, to feel upset by what feels totally unjust. But, it’s not all bad. There are simple pleasures too. I can be silly and Mum will laugh, much more easily than she would’ve in the past, and we get to play games I can see she enjoys. She’s less affected by “what other people might think” (something she always worried about in the past). And she’ll sing happily along to songs – knowing more of the words than I ever will!  

Mum would have to be having a “very good” day to be able to greet me by name now, but it’s nice that she seems pleased to see me. In fact, someone asked her recently how many children she had and I was impressed to hear her answer correctly – impressed because she’s told me before that she doesn’t have a daughter (at that point, I’m not sure who she thought I was, but she doesn’t mind that I’m there). To that point, it’s generally become easier to call her Wendy rather than Mum when speaking to her, because it confuses her less. When she hears “Mum”, she thinks it’s her Mum, not her name, and although Nan died a few years ago now, she’s someone that’s alive and present in Mum’s mind.

So what will I be doing to justify asking for your donation? Following my first trail marathon last year, I wanted to take on something new – so I’ve chosen the “Capital Ring”. It’s a 126km (78 mile) route around London and I’m going to try and do it in 3 consecutive days. There’s signposts all the way around the Ring, but I suspect my overall distance will be longer than the official route. Knowing my very unreliable (down-right misleading) sense of direction, I will definitely have taken one or two wrong turns feeling certain I’m going the right way!

I picked the date for the challenge because it was clear in the diary – I didn’t give a huge amount of thought to how much time I actually needed to prepare. It’s perhaps telling by the fact that I’m using a 20 week training plan that I had to start 10 weeks in because that’s how much time was left before the date! Whoops. I see this as a physical and mental challenge – one that I’m working hard to prepare for. However, I’m going to have to remind the competitive (rather loud) voice inside my head that this is not a race. Although I’m sure it will be tempting off the back off progress made from so many training runs, I must not try to get a marathon PB on the first day…there are 2 more days to go after that and, perhaps more importantly, I want this to be an experience. A chance to see bits of London that I never normally would. Something I won’t be able to do if I’m purely focused on going quickly.

The route is effectively on my doorstop – I’ll be setting off on 31^st March, starting 1.5kms down the road in Hanwell and travelling north from there through Hendon and Highgate, before heading to East London via Stoke Newington and staying overnight in Stratford. On day 2, I’ll set off for South London, crossing under the Thames using the Woolwich foot tunnel and heading west to finish the day in Crystal Palace. I’ve not spent much time south of the river, so will definitely be discovering some new parts of London. The home straight on day 3 will take me through Wimbledon and Richmond, before getting to the much more familiar Thames Path near Brentford and up the local canal to Osterley Lock (all but home)!

Thank you for taking the time to read what I’m doing, and more importantly, why I’m doing it. Amongst other things, Alzheimer’s Research is working on developing over 20 potential new treatments for dementia right now. Any support you can give to make  breakthroughs possible would be amazing! Thank you x

__________________________________________________________________

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.