I'm running (walking/crawling) 74 miles of Hadrian's Wall over 4 days, from 6th-9th July 2021, to raise money for the Addison's Disease Self Help Group. 

In 2016 my wife, Keli, was diagnosed with Addison's Disease; a chronic autoimmune condition, which destroyed her adrenal glands, stopping Keli from producing vital hormones including cortisol.

Cortisol is the hormone that gives us our 'get up and go'. It allows our body to function and is produced in response to any sort of physical or emotional stress. People with Addison's Disease have to take steroid replacement tablets several times a day to replace their missing cortisol and accompanying hormones. Managing this balance can be tricky and even a small illness or mental stress can deplete their replacement hormones, meaning people with Addison's may constantly have to adjust their medication to keep their levels stable. They are at constant risk of adrenal crisis, a potentially fatal state where the body runs out of cortisol and begins to shut down.

I've seen Keli struggle to come to terms with the complexities of this disease over the last five years, and have seen the 'postcode lottery' of care, for this rare disease, first hand. Some clinicians are excellent, and others woefully lacking in understanding how this illness is treated or what it even is! It took Keli two years to get her diagnosis, and this is a common experience. Doctors have forgotten to prescribe her medications, ambulances have refused to pick her up and she constantly has to advocate for herself and for the care she needs and rightfully deserves, when in a medical setting.

The Addison's Disease Self Help Group is a fantastic resource of information, particularly for those newly diagnosed. As well as providing information and a sense of community for individuals with this rare disease, they also advocate at a national level; promoting training and guidance for medical staff, funding awareness programmes and research into more patient-friendly treatment options. For example, they have recently funded research into development of an epi-pen style injection, to replace the clumsy and complicated emergency injection kit people like Keli have to carry around all of the time. 

I really want to give back to Addison's Disease Self Help Group, as a thank you for their amazing work, and to support them going forwards. 

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.