On July 5th, I will stand on the start line in Roth, Germany to race the infamous ‘home of triathlon’, the 226km Challenge Roth - a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and 42.2km run.

I appear to have settled into a 3-year cadence of what could be considered more extreme physical challenges:

2020: cycling 919km from my quarantined apartment in Hong Kong.

2023: running the 250km Marathon Des Sables across the Moroccan Sahara.

Roth is my first triathlon. Whilst I appreciate Ironman distance is not everyone’s classic first step into the sport, I have generally found the ‘diving in at the deep end’ approach suits me better. Of course, come July 5th, these may be famous last words.

I will be racing Roth for Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), one of the world’s leading children’s hospitals, based in London. Whilst I have long admired GOSH from afar, I was brought much closer to the organisation when a few years ago I was introduced to my great friend and training companion, James Hatchley.

James’ beautiful daughter, Emma, spent 102 days over the course of early 2014 in GOSH. She was diagnosed with a particularly rare disease called Churg Strauss Syndrome. Emma was looked after by countless surgeons, doctors and nurses across 30 GOSH departments. Emma's journey was always at the extremes of medicine and when her own heart could not be saved she was lucky enough to be given a transplant. Emma faced it all with bravery, but very sadly lost her battle on 30th May, 2014.

When James roped me into his triathlon fold (willingly), I spent a number of years building a rather high level of obsession with the sport, as a fan. One could say I amassed an alarmingly bizarre level of niche professional triathlete knowledge, yet never considered racing a triathlon myself. It was thus inevitable, at some stage I was going to have to remove myself from the sidelines to give the action a go.

Roth came at a perfect time.

Whilst GOSH has always been in the back of my mind as I slog myself to the swimming pool on a Friday evening, the process of returning to heavy training has been transformative for me personally. The years of 2024 and 2025 were without doubt the hardest of my life - I was hit with many setbacks. Sport has brought so many positives into my life - this time, it gave me back belief in myself when I needed it most.

It is a true privilege to line up on any start line. Thank you James for asking me to join you on the start line of Roth, and thank you to anyone who is able to donate to GOSH in Emma’s memory, and for the many other children in their care.

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