I have always wanted to take on a walking challenge but was never sure what to do. Having lived in Wales now for pretty much 20 years and have never walked, Snowdon, Cadair Idris or Pen Y Fan, I thought why not do all 3 in 24 hours. I then mentioned it to a few people at my work and managed to get some people enthusiastic. I then looked into it further and managed to get a mountain guide and before you know it I have organised the Wales 3 Peaks challenge for 18 of us with 3 mountain guides.

I wanted to do this challenge for charity and this Christmas it became clear who I would do it for due to two family incidents. The British Heart Fountation.

It started with my father-in-law, Gordon, who collapsed when beating at a pheasant shoot and had to be rushed to hospital. They discovered he had a heart mumur and then he spent 6 weeks in hospital over Christmas and New Year and had to have a full heart valve replacement and a pace maker fitted. Thankfully he has pulled through all of this and is making a good recovery.

This wasn't it though, on Christmas Eve I got a phone call to say that my Dad, Nick, was in hospital as he was having a heart attack. He ended up having to go for an anigoplasty to unblock a heart valve. He was in hospital for 7 days being monitoured 24 hrs until he was allowed home, again very lucky to be making a good recovery.

Both these incidents came out of nowhere and could have ended very differently. My Dad and father-in-law are fit, heathy people, who we would never have expected this to happen to.

The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly every day hundreds of people lose their lives and aren't as lucky as my Dad and father-in-law.

It's only thanks to support from people like you that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £24 could pay for two hours of research by an early career scientist, but every pound helps so please give what you can to help me hit my target.

Thanks and wish us luck!