Thanks for taking the time to visit this JustGiving page.  

Im well aware this is my third year of trying to raise awareness of this brutal disease and try and raise money for research.  And conscious that in being the third year I need to do something over and above the previous years to give this disease the kind of platform MND gets. The platform it deserves.

Therefore I've committed to three 100 mile plus Ultra challenges within the next 12m to try and generate funding for a cure:

1. On 28th July I hope to complete the Lakeland 100 - a 100m Ultra race joining up the classic mountain passes around Lake District, that has a strict entry criteria and 40-50% drop out rate. Indeed its seen as a badge of honour just to complete:

https://lakeland100.com/

2. On January 13th 2024 complete the Spine Challenger South - a 108m race along the first half of the Pennine Way purposely raced in Winter when the British weather is at its most brutal (look up the race disclaimer to get a view of how tough it is 😅)

https://www.thespinerace.com/race/montane-winter-spine/montane-winter-spine-challenger-south/

3. On 24/25 May 2024  become the 4th person ever (and the first nearly 10 years) to complete the 39 Trigs of the South Pennines- a circa 120m (the link below says 105m but they didn't have digital maps in 1991 to plot the route!) round of every single trig point on the hills of the OL21 Ordance Survey Map.

https://gofar997.wixsite.com/gofar/south-pennine-39-trigs

Hopefully this helps generate the awareness this disease deserves. Phoebe's story is below, which is a typical case and every Parent's worst nightmare.

Phoebe's dad Mark is a friend of mine. She would have been 12 this  April but  regrettably she will be always 8.  

She loved the outdoors where her radiant sprit could be unleashed and her zest for life, for nature could be let loose. She had a mischievous spirit, loving to prank, an endearing cheekiness with sparkly eyes betraying always her next mirthful moment, desiring always to make people laugh and spread her special cocktail of happiness and joy to others. She had a rare and precious gift. She knew how to love deeply and she was much loved .When she was in the room life was always brighter, sharper (unpredictable ) more real and more enjoyable, filled with laughter and joy.   

In 2019 she was diagnosed with a DIPG a highly aggressive inoperable brain tumour. There was a rapid onset of symptoms in the space of a day with no prior warning. Phoebe passed away on 23rd November a mere 3 months after diagnosis. There is no cure.  

The disease is brutal, super aggressive with the cancer wrapping around the healthy brain stem, restricting movement, speech, sight, and the ability to swallow and eventually breath. It is truly horrific. What makes it even more shocking is that treatment protocols have not changed in 60 years. The Astronaut Neil Armstrong's daughter Karen  received the same diagnosis as Phoebe in 1962. They were offered the same treatment as Phoebe -  Radiation. It would provide a few months at most of improved symptoms but Mark and family were told to go home and make memories. In this day and age this cannot be right. Every 9 days another family in the UK is destroyed by this diagnosis and the absence of hope.  

To bring it to life the gallery attached to the page shows the children who have lost their life over the last 12m to the disease.

Abbies Army are a charity committed to raise money for research to find a cure for DIPG  - so other families dont have to endure what their families went through.