For those who know me well know that I have spoken for some time about climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. There are a few reasons why - I want to train ‘towards something’, challenge myself (big time) and do something good and meaningful by raising some money for charity...something I haven’t done since swimming 52 lengths of Cheam Baths for Battersea Dogs Home when I was 10. Some have referred to this as my ‘mid-life’ crisis, who am I to correct them!

Suzie and I met for coffee earlier this year, I mentioned my ambition and desperation to do this challenge and Suzie, very kindly, jumped on board immediately (thanks Suzie!). We quickly registered with a company called 'Action Challenge' who will be getting us over to Tanzania and looking after us whilst we're on the mountain, and since the summer we have made very good friends with Box Hill and other places...finding hills and distances we never knew existed before. We're determined to get as fit and as ready for this challenge as possible, and we're enjoying every moment of it, so far!

We're 'self-funding' ourselves to do this, and we've decided to raise money for two small charities, both of which mean a lot to us, so we hope that when you donate you'll be happy to donate 'evenly' to both. We tell you why these charities are important to us on the individual pages. Thank you for reading, and thank you so much for your support.

And whilst I'm here, thank you to our husbands and families for supporting us through this too...we love you!