I have an unfinished job to do on this race! Having entered the 2020 edition in January 2019 this has been a project spanning more than 4 years. Since setting my heart on it, this six day endurance race, called the 'toughest race on earth' by multiple gold-winning Olympian James Cracknell, has been my focus and led me into a whole new world of ultrarunning. With the pandemic arriving in 2020, my journey extended into a three year training block and I was more than ready to take on the physical and mental challenge by the time race day came around in October 2021. But events conspired against me and in the 35th edition of MDS, despite starting strong (even finishing as 2nd woman on day 1) I was struck by the illness that wiped out half the field. After dehydration and vomiting took their toll I was forced to record my first and only DNF for a race and I was absolutely crushed - and still am.

If life had been straightforward I would have been queuing up to enter the next edition scheduled for March 2022, but I had committed to having surgery 3 weeks after I returned from the desert so was not going to be in shape to run again that soon. It was lucky I didn't, as due to a post-op infection, the one elective surgery I had decided to have turned into a further five operations that only finally completed in January 2023. This has left me with just 10 weeks to train for MDS 2023 but I am so excited to have the chance to go back!

This time I am hoping to use my crazy exploits to raise money for and awareness of Down’s South London (DSL) who are very small charity who have helped my wonderful niece Lucy with her development. The additional support services and therapy that they have provided Lucy through these early years of her life have massively helped her development in a way standard NHS provision could not. She is now a highly cheeky, chatty, dancing, galumphing 5 year old, attending mainstream primary school and bringing joy to all of us who have the pleasure to know her. I’d like to help DSL continue to offer this amazing service to other local families around South London, so please support me with my cause! I’ve set my target as a moderate £3500 which is the estimated cost to fund the charity to treat one child for a year - hopefully I can raise more than that though!

Thank you in advance! xx

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