I’m raising funds for South Dartmoor Community College to enable any young person there to participate in The Ten Tors Challenge.

Ten Tors is an annual event for teenagers where they pit themselves against the challenging landscape of Dartmoor in which they have to walk either 35,45 or 55 miles, self-supported over a weekend. They are carrying their tent, food, water, clothes, emergency kit for 2 days in teams of six. This a LONG way and it can be really brutal as Dartmoor can throw at you all of the weather in 1 day !

For the past couple of years I have been volunteering with the training for the kids at South Dartmoor Community College, as well as seeing my own daughter Lucy complete both the 35 mile and 45 routes. This has been one of the most amazing things I've seen and been involved with.

They start their training in November on short day walks, where they don’t really know what they’ve let themselves in for and they often don't know each other very well. From there, progressing through walking longer distances, camping overnight, getting harder and harder and seeing them face the challenges, start to build as a team and to support each other. It's a really heart-warming process to be involved with.

At the event it itself, you see them cross the finish line, hugging, laughing and crying; it’s been life changing for them. They’ve learnt so many skills – teamwork, the resilience to push themselves beyond what they knew they could do, grow friendships, learn how to camp, to cook food and to navigate. It's fantastic!

And then at the finish line when they’re broken and exhausted and eating their celebratory pasty, they’re saying “Right then, let’s do it again next year!”

It's properly amazing, but none of this would be possible without volunteers to help, and the fundraising done behind the scenes.

The Fundraising covers a whole host of things: walking and camping equipment, subsidising the cost of participation, minibus hire, training for Volunteers and all sorts of other things. Every year, a group of adults attempt to take on the Ten Tors Challenge, to see if they can do it and to see what the kids go through. And this year, I doing it! I'm going to be doing the 45 mile route over the moor, and if you could sponsor me it would be amazing. It really is an incredible event and the kids benefit like nothing else, thank you.

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