Update:  Me and my blue tutu have made it round the Great North Run, the London Marathon and now up Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Alzheimer's Society.  Thank-you for all your generous donations and support.  Please read on....

 

I hit the big 40 this year, so to celebrate my mid-life crisis I decided to raise a big £4,000 for the Alzheimer's Society, with lots of help from Troy, Luke, Ben and Megan.

 

To raise the money I've done:

 

A little run...Great North Run (13.1 miles) in Sept - completed in 2hrs 30mins (perfectly timed for the red arrows to keep me entertained over the last mile along the sea front and to ensure someone else had got the first round in at the pub!),

A big run...London Marathon (26.2 miles) in April - completed in 5 hrs 56 mins (got distracted by the hunky firemen hosing us down as we ran past, a very generous lady handing out free beer and a distressed womble, otherwise, of course, I would have come in just behind that speedy Kenyan!)

And a massive climb...Kilimanjaro (19,563 ft) in Oct - the most incredible experience.  Kili threw all she had at us; rain, snow and blistering sun whilst we walked through rainforest, clambered up cliffs and across waterfalls, trekked through moonscapes and scrambled up the scree slopes of hell to finally reach the summit.

 

The rest of the Swankies joined in to help raise funds:

 

Troy also ran the marathon - strolled round in 3 hrs 27 mins...finished in the top 10%!

And he competed in Ironman 70.3 UK (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride & 13.1 mile run) in June, finishing in a new PB of 5 hrs 30 mins, coming in 126 out of 1,650 entrants - my hero!

Luke took part in the Bedford Junior Aquathlon in May, running the fastest in his age group(!) to come in 5th in 9 mins 20 secs - we're very proud of him.

And Ben and Megan were very noisy and enthusiastic cheer leaders. 

 

The Alzheimer's Society is the UK's leading support service and research charity for people with dementia and those who care for them.

 

It was only a £100 for each of my 40 years - and together we raised that, with Santander matching every £1 you donated.

 

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

 

Thanks for taking the time to visit this page, any donations will be greatly appreciated.

 

Nikki