When London Marathon Events made me a Non-Exec Director this year I decided (possibly rashly) to test out all their events in person and raise money for two charities that are close to my heart, Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research and The Walkabout Foundation.
These are the events I’m taking on in 2018:
London Marathon
The Big Half Marathon
Vitality 10k
The Westminster Mile
RideLondon (74km cycle)
Swim Serpentine (1 mile swim)
And these are the (very deserving) charities:
Stoke Mandeville Spinal Research focuses on ‘making life liveable’ after a spinal cord injury. It uses new medical breakthroughs, technological innovation and social insight to find solutions to alleviate chronic complications (like the incredibly annoying burning sensation I have constantly in my legs!), develop assistive technologies to improve neurorehabilitation, and help people with far worse spinal cord injuries than mine to realise their full potential regardless of their disability.
Walkabout Foundation’s mission is to restore dignity, freedom and independence by providing wheelchairs and rehabilitation in the developing world. To date, it has distributed over 13,000 wheelchairs in 23 countries, impacting an estimated 39,000 lives, opened two rehabilitation and Day Care centres in India and Kenya and taken their work one step further in April 2018, and opened the first ever Walkabout wheelchair assembly line which will provide a more consistent flow of wheelchairs to the East Africa region and employ local wheelchair users and Walkabout recipients.
NOTE: If you check out Walkabout’s website, they are also funding research into curing paralysis, but as some of you know that’s not an area I put much stock behind, so any money we raise will not be going to this side of the charity.
This is the first time in 9 years I’ve challenged myself in a way that I hope is worthy of a donation from my wonderful friends and family, so I would be very grateful for anything you can give to the fantastic charities I’m supporting. Whether you can donate or not, I’d love to see you on the course/ at the finish!
