I have been a member of Bowland Pennine Mountain Rescue Team since 2003. I am Team Leader for the team, one of the incident controllers and have previously been the teams Training Officer and Team Rep on the committee.

I sort of fell into being in the Rescue Team, not literally, but was on a first aid course on a Thursday a number of years ago now, which was being delivered by someone from another team and, after a chat during the day, I sent an enquiry email to the team and was invited down the following Wednesday. Within a week I went from not really thinking about being in a team to becoming a trainee and it has sort of taken over my life since!!

I sort of fell into running ultras in a similar way. The first ultra I entered was the Lakeland 50, putting my name into the ballot not expecting to get a place and then having a bit of a shock when I did. I have completed a 50km race at the Keswick Mountain Festival a few years back, the Lakeland 50 twice and the Fellsman twice. I ran the Fellsman this year for the second time and was fairly pleased to knock 4 hours off my previous time.

I continue to have a love hate relationship with my watch and training. I love being out in the hills and running across open country, and my watch hates me and regularly thinks I am Unproductive or generally not doing enough. Run training is a challenge alongside work, family life, mountain rescue training and the management of the team and then the call outs and Garmin does not think I sleep enough, but I am getting out when I can to try and get myself as ready as I can alongside the rest of life's pressures.

I have never attempted 100 miles, never mind the extra 8 miles on top that makes up the Spine Challenger South and it is a little daunting and a tad scary! I am expecting it to be very hard, I am not expecting to be massively quick but I am fairly stubborn so will give everything I can to complete it.

I am raising money for the rescue team that I have been a member of for the last 22 years. Everyone involved in Mountain Rescue in England and Wales are volunteers. We all give up our time for training and the inevitable disruption to our daily lives to help people who are in need. As a charity we have no statutory funding but will work alongside police, ambulance, fire and other services and councils to help others. As a team, and personally, we have been to the scene of the Greyrigg train derailment, flooding in York, in Lancaster and other posts of Lancashire. We have searched for numerous missing people, from lost children, injured fell runners, suicidal people. We have assisted in searches that have turned into murder enquiries, we have helped fallen climbers, walkers and bikers. To do this we all train hard and very regularly and also raise money for the charity in order to provide these services.

It would be amazing if you could help contribute to the team by sponsoring me to attempt the Spine Challenger South in June 2025.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

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