How it all began
While Kay was doing some research in January she stumbled across the Trailwalker page on the Oxfam website, loved the video, and thought (curled up on the couch under a duvet) that it sounded like a brilliant idea!  Unexpectedly Lauren, Adele and Naomi were just as susceptible to inspirational advertising, the Petes and Tal were roped in - and Stroll Patrol was formed!

The madness
Naomi, Adele, Lauren and Kay have committed to complete a 100km non-stop hiking ultra-marathon along the South Downs Way in under 30 hours!  We'll be starting in Petersfield in the early hours of Saturday 19th of July and - with the two Petes and Tal providing food, support, hugs, chocolate and words and shouts of encouragement at the checkpoints along the way - we'll be walking all day and all night and finishing sometime on Sunday 20th July.  That's two and a half marathons in one shot including an ascent equivalent to Ben Nevis - we'll be walking through blisters, muscle stain, cramps, fatigue and mental exhaustion!  ... in fact, we're making ourselves scared just writing this page ;-)

Training so far
Even so, we're actually all really looking forward to it - Oxfam did a great job of that video, go and check it out here if you're interested: http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/fundraise/trailwalker/taster.html.  We've already started our training - with some good initial results - and we're having fun already!  We'll keep you updated on our progress - though if you feel like a laugh the three of us who live down south can be seen doing loops of Regents Park, Hampstead Heath, Ali-Pali, Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common on weekends!

Charities
We've also pledged to raise £2,000 as a group for Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust, and - as none of us have ever fund-raised this much before - we're quite nervous about meeting our target.  We'd be really grateful if you could sponsor us if you're able - the causes are good ones!  The money we raise gets split roughly 50/50 between Oxfam and the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
Oxfam does great work worldwide aiming at relieving poverty and suffering and has recently started focussing on long term development.  Go and visit their website to see what they get up to http://www.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam_in_action/
The Gurkha Welfare Trust provides financial, medical and community aid to alleviate hardship and distress among Gurkha ex-servicemen and their dependants after they've returned to their homeland in Nepal.  There's quite a good summary of who the Gurkha's are http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha and what the trust does http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gurkha_Welfare_Trust on wikipedia, and the GWT's website is here: http://www.gwt.org.uk

Please help us reach our target!
Fundraising starts here, and we'd like to raise as much as possible as early as possible so we can focus on our training!  Please feel free to sponsor us lots of dosh for the hike, the training, or if you'd like to see a little more value for money, let us know what you'd like in return for your cash!  
 * Kay is offering her baking skills (wicked chocolate cakes, beautiful hazlenut and chocolate biscuits and whatever else you're craving) and hand car-washes
 * Lauren and Pete B are offering their greenfingeredliness for light gardening and car-washes
Provided the pledge is big enough we will volunteer to do almost (*ahem*) anything!

Donate here - it's easy and totally secure.  Oxfam and GWT receive your money straight away, and if you're a UK taxpayer an extra 28% will be added to your donation at no extra cost to you (though the latter doesn't count towards our pledge total as the government releases the money too late). 

Thanks a million for your support!

Adele, Lauren, Naomi, Pete B, Pete K, Kay, and Tal!

Update (May 2008):
Thanks so much to everyone who has helped us reach our target!  We're still going to be collecting until after the race (August sometime), so if you like the causes and woulld like to donate, then please do!

Update (June 2008):
We've set up a blog so you can see how we're getting on with training, feel free to take a peek so you can laugh at us in pain: http://strollpatrol2008.blogspot.com/

Update (21st July 2008)
We did it!
"Team 359, Stroll Patrol, All In!" in 26 hours, 15 mins and 51 seconds.
Thanks so much to everyone for their support - we really couldn't have done it without you.  Thank you also for all your words, phonecalls and texts of encouragement  before and during the walk - we really needed them!
The Gurkas were totally amazing - friendly and encouraging with great big smiles of welcome the whole way.
Our justgiving page is open until the end of September, so if you'd still like to donate then please do!