Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

After last years success in completing the Yorkshire 3 peaks and smashing my fundraising target I wanted to go bigger and better this year and push myself to the limit both physically and mentally.

The lake district ultra challange is a 100km (62mile) hike around some of the most scenic parts of the lake district. As well as the distance I will have 8200ft of elivation to tackle and will be hiking through the night to get to that finish line. I'll be aiming to complete the challenge in under 30 hours, I've created a Instagram account to track my progress @first_ultra92. Give me a follow to watch this journey unfold. 

Please have a read of my story which explains a little bit about why I want to take on such a challenge.

On the 27/12/2018 a miracle happened, my little girl Lilly was born. At her 20 week scan she was diagnosed with Hypoplastic left heart syndrome(Hlhs) like many of you, my wife and I had never even heard of this, we had so many questions.

Hlhs is a congenital heart defect where the left side of the heart doesn't form correctly. The doctors told us to prepare for the worst as the average life expectancy of someone with hlhs is low and that's if they make it past the 3 open heart surgeries needed to stay alive.

We thought our world had ended, my wife and I were devastated and felt totally helpless. We were so excited to be having a baby and to find out there is a high chance she may not make it totally broke us.

Lilly Broome was born on the 27/12/2018 at 15:21, weighing 7lbs 4oz. As expected she was rushed straight to the intensive care unit. The doctors and nurses that looked after her were amazing, they made sure we were involved every step of the way and although she was surrounded by machines and wires, they did their best to let us do as much as possible.

In total Lilly spent 4 nights in hospital and in that time the most amazing thing happened, to this day the doctors have not been able to explain it but somehow her heart was fine. This truly is a miracle, we couldn't believe what we were hearing, how can this be happening? All our dreams had come true!!

What's upsetting is that not all families get a happy ending like ours and that is why I'm doing this, I want to give as much back as I can to the families that are still going through this!!

Below is a link to the heartline families website if you want to know more about the amazing work they do. 

https://www.heartline.org.uk/