Hi

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page!

Most of my recent fundraising efforts for Scottish Huntington's Association (SHA) have been half marathons. After each one, I usually say – I should really up my game and either do a full marathon, or ‘something else’.

It’s two years since I did the Great North Run for SHA – and this time, the ‘something else’ won!

This year, I’m upping my game by 72 miles!

I'm taking a week off work to run from Inverness to Skye. It's 85 miles over 5 days, starting on Sunday 15th of May. It’s something I’ve talked about doing for a number of years, but never thought I’d actually get around to doing it.

• Sun – 21 miles
• Mon – 17 miles
• Tue – 9 miles
• Wed – 21 miles
• Thu – 17 miles

Obviously, this is going to be a major challenge for me - the furthest I've ever run is 14 miles!!

Also, it's mainly off road, so I need to get out in the hills to practice properly.

So, why am I doing this?

As you might already know, my dad suffers from Huntington's Disease (HD) and I'm using this opportunity to raise funds for the people who help to support him and our family and friends through dealing with the disease.

We've been aware of Dad suffering from HD for about 17 years now. It came to light following a car accident - thankfully nobody was injured. Over the years he's gradually lost the ability to do things we take for granted like walking, talking and eating. He's really difficult to understand now, but despite this, he still has his sense of humor!

He spends his days in a special chair now, which helps to keep him from sliding to one side. Except for days when he doesn’t feel like getting up, and so he stays in his special bed, instead.

HD is degenerative neurological disorder and affects around 900 people in Scotland. The symptoms are similar to Parkinson's Disease. However, one key difference is that HD is that it's hereditary and children of sufferers have a 50/50 chance of inheriting the faulty gene. I'm an optimist :) and I like to look on the bright-side!

Thanks again for taking the time to visit my page and reading my story. I really hope you can help by supporting my cause. All contributions are gratefully received.

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