Hi, thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I'm raising money for 2 great charities which I'll detail below. Given that it's 2 charities I thought it only right to do 2 events!

Firstly, I'm heading back to the Sahara in April to compete in Marathon des Sables (MDS) again. For those who are unaware of the madness that MDS is, it's 6 marathons in 7 days in the Sahara whilst be self sufficient with the exception of water. That means I'll be carrying all my food, kit and sleep gear that I need for the week during each and every stage. My pack weight on day 1 last year was 8.5kg plus 1.5kg of water.

https://www.marathondessables.com/en

Secondly, I'll be heading to the Alps in August to race in UTMB - TDS or to give it it's full name Ultra Trail Mont Blanc - Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie (following the footprints of the Dukes of Savoie). This is a single stage race starting in Courmayeur in Italy and runs through the Alp over 150.5Km and more than 9100m of elevation gain to finish in Chamonix, France. I'll have 44h to complete it.

https://montblanc.utmb.world/races/tds

So enough of the madness and down to the causes, the things that will keep me moving during both of these events. The money will be split equally between Warrington Youth Zone and Parson Cross Forum (Sheffield). Both are small charities that support the communities in which they are based and every donation no matter how big or small will make a real difference to them and the people they support.

Warrington Youth Zone is a registered charity supporting over 7,500 young people aged 7-19 (up to 25 with additional needs).

Our mission is “to provide opportunities and challenges that inspire young people to lead healthier, happier more positive lives, raising their aspirations to become caring and responsible citizens with more to offer themselves, their families, the community, and employers.”

The Youth Zone is open 365 days per year, offering a wide variety of social and recreational opportunities in sports, arts, music, life skills, and wellbeing. Young people pay just £5 a year membership and 50p per visit to access the full programme, and donations allow us to provide memberships to disadvantaged families completely free of charge.

Alongside our Universal offer, we also deliver a range of important Targeted Programmes which benefit our most vulnerable children and young people with Mental Health support, Disability-specific projects, Mentoring, Food Support, and Employability.

https://warringtonyouthzone.org/

Parson Cross Forum has been in existence since 1999, working with and for the community from our base in the St Thomas More Church in the heart of Parson Cross. Whilst we provide services for the whole of our community, for the last 10yrs we have focused our efforts on supporting the older people in our community. This is because 16.4% of our community are over 65yrs and 13% households have older people living alone.

The older people we work with are vulnerable, live alone, fulltime carers, live with various and often complex health conditions such as dementia, or suffer with a physical or mental disability. We provide them with a weekly diary of events and activities such as Memory Cafes, Lunch Clubs, Indoor Bowling, Young at Heart, Batters, JABADAO, and our warm spaces. We also support a Men's Health group, Walking Football, Baby and Toddler groups, Pilates and our Open-Door project for people with learning disabilities. Each activity is designed to form and grow social and support networks to help people manage challenging personal circumstances. We responded directly to the need those people living in our area.

We are seen as the ‘go-to’ place for dementia services as our Memory Café and JABADAO model contributes to the overall strategy for Sheffield and the PKW Partnership.

The programme of dementia services we have delivered in the last 5yrs has been exceptional, recognised as some of the best dementia and community support activities across the whole of Sheffield. We have achieved recognition in national and local awards, on Radio Sheffield and ITV Calendar News and Sky News, and been visited by over 50 organisations in the last five years around our successful dementia care services. They include, Alzheimer’s Society, Dementia Practitioners, Enrichment for the Elderly, Shindig, Hallam University Placements, Sheffield City Council, NHS Sheffield, Voluntary Action Sheffield, GPs, Sheffield Healthwatch, SCCCC, Age UK and the Clinical Commissioning Group.

It costs almost £200,000 to run our charity every year; we raise this through grant funding, events, room hire and through donations or sponsored events. We are grateful for everything we receive, whether its £10, £1000 or £10,000 as it ensures we can continue to support our community.

http://www.pxforum.org/

Thank you,

Greg