I’m aiming to complete the Nine Edges 20-mile run in the Peak District this Saturday from Ladybower Reservoir up onto all the beautiful Edges and over to Baslow. If you would like to support me, I am raising money for two causes which are very close to my heart:

1) To establish a small fund to support agroecology in the community of El Sontule, Miraflor, Nicaragua in memory and honour of the life of our wonderful friend Rogelio Villarreyna Acuña who died on 6 September 2021*

2) To contribute to the monthly running costs of a new community maternity clinic on Idjwi Island in Lake Kivu, DR Congo**

*We lived with Rogelio’s family in Nicaragua in 2008/9 and he lived with us for 6 months in 2019. He and his family have had a profound influence on the way we live our lives. Their humility, commitment to their family, to education, to their community, to cooperative values and to achieve all of this through sustainable farming at its core is a constant inspiration to us. Rogelio lived his values and brought such joy to ours and so many peoples lives with his beautiful singing and guitar playing, his sense of purpose combined with pure fun and kindness. When he lived with us he worked into the night on journal articles on agroecology which he had published, he invested part of his income from consultancies on coffee adaptation to the climate crisis into a family/community fund to further agroecology projects. When he went home, he was so proud to buy cows and fatten them up on silvopasture, amongst the trees and demonstrate to his community that different ways of farming are possible. He was truly one of the best. In recent months, I was overjoyed when a coffee roaster selected coffee from his cooperative for a new gelateria in the Northeast and I’ve been loving having him as an expert to ask questions and work together on it. We will miss him forever and send so much love and solidarity to his family.

**The clinic was built and fully equipped in 2020 and a clean water supply established for the first time to the community. Prior to this, there were no maternity or paediatric services on the island, which is home to over 250,000 people. The clinic has been operational since December and is making a huge difference to the community. It’s a project by Rebuild Women’s Hope coffee cooperative on Idjwi Island with their coffee partner Mozzo Coffee in the UK. Mozzo Coffee funded the project through their Community2Community Fund, which I manage through the charity, Social Business Network. For more information on it all, see the C2C Fund website.

Rebuild Women’s Hope plans to secure the long-term sustainability of the clinic through a combination of income from coffee sales, health partnerships and small contributions from patients when they are able.

Our original plan was to run the Paris Marathon in April 2020 to raise funds for the clinic. Covid stopped us in our tracks but Mozzo kept its commitment to the clinic through very difficult times as cafes and restaurants closed their doors in the UK and coffee sales fell. The C2C Fund continues to contribute to the clinics monthly running costs. 

Part of the funds raised here will go to Rebuild Women’s Hope to support the clinic as the coffee market recovers from the impact of Covid.

I’ll be running with two of my dear friends and running pals, Cath and Ian, and many snacks. When I signed up to the Paris Marathon, I couldn’t fathom how I would get to running that far. It’s been empowering, joyful/painful and therapeutic to go from running 2 or 3 miles to regularly running half marathon distances through the long grass, nettles and mud of our bit of Derbyshire/Staffordshire with the occasional uplifting run in the Peak District. It’s been a brilliant thing to keep going over the Covid period and I couldn’t have done it without them both. Mil gracias amigos!

I’d be really grateful if you could share with anyone you think may want to support this as I’m not on social media. Thank you, your support means so much.