A heart felt thank you for taking the time to read my JustGiving page to see the 10 challenges I will be completing throughout 2022 including the London Marathon and jumping out of a plane! 

Every 20 minutes, someone in the UK is diagnosed with a blood cancer, the fifth most common cancer in the UK. 

I am facing 10 humongous challenges for Leukaemia Care, a charity very close to my families heart and here is why:

OUR STORY -  #DoItForDad 

In April 2021, an already challenging year my Dad become ill. A usually healthy, hard working and non-stop man not being able to leave the bed. Dad expected it was food poisoning and would pass with some paracetamol. Days passed and the illness showed no signs of stopping. The family managed to persuade Dad to get checked out at the doctors. 

A flying visit, pick up a prescription and be on the mend in no time, right? Unfortunately, this was not the case. After numerous tests, trips and telephone calls my Dad, and the family received the startling, shocking and completely unexpected news. Dad had been diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML), a form of blood cancer which he will live with for life. 

How? Why Dad? What can we do? What can the hospital do? Who do we tell? How can we tell them? What does this actually mean? Do we need to create a bucket list? 

It is with a warm heart-full thank you to the NHS and charities such as Leukaemia Care who helped to answer many of the above questions. Through the tears shed, strong hugs and pure disbelief Dad and the family slowly began to understand how life will change since that news in April (and we continue to learn). 

Since the diagnosis Dad has found a new lease of life and unknowingly picked up a favourite phrase “You’ve got to live for now and today, who knows what could happen tomorrow”. Anyone who is close to our family will have definitely heard this! 

With this in mind, I am taking this attitude with me to complete the below 10 challenges in order to turn our families shock & anguish into a positive for me, for Dad to be proud, and to enable Leukaemia Care to offer the much needed support, wellness and funding needed in order to help other families and individuals who face similar situations. 

THE CHALLENGES

1) January - Dry Jan (no alcohol) 🍻✅

2) February - Dry Feb (no alcohol - as if one month wasn’t challenging enough!)🤪✅

3) March - Sheffield Half Marathon🏃🏻‍♂️✅

4) April - Jump out of a plane (hopefully with a parachute) 🪂✅

5) May - Leeds Half Marathon🏃🏻‍♂️✅

6) June - 12 hour trekking🚶🏻‍♂️✅

7) July - To be decided by you. Donate £10 in the first 2 weeks of July. I will accept the challenge drawn out of a hat. £10 per challenge suggestion🎩✅

8) August - Bubble football event⚽️✅

9) September - Guiness World Record attempt🤨✅

10)  October - London 2022 Marathon🏃🏻‍♂️😮‍💨

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

For more information on Leukaemia Care please visit their website: https://www.leukaemiacare.org.uk/support-and-information.

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