I really appreciate if you can take the time to read my story 🙏. 

On the 17th of January I set myself a personal goal of achieving half a million steps by my birthday (11th March) by doing a variety of winter hill walking, regular walks on Ullapool hill footpath  and using my home stepping machine  whilst recording my steps on my phone app.  I have since decided to up the target to 600, 000 steps based on what I’ve achieved so far. This equates to roughly 11,500 steps everyday from the 17th January to the 11th March without any rest days. And very often in deep snow as you can see from my gallery pics! After some thought I decided it would be a great idea to try to raise funds for Ullapool Sea Savers who are a group of amazing young people based in Ullapool where I live who have come together to seek out positive, proactive ways to work to promote, protect and save the seas. It is all too important especially now for all of us to look into ways of caring better for our environment and these young people are an inspiration which is why I think they are so worthy of our support 

So a wee bit more about my story ... As many of my friends already know, I was involved in a serious road traffic accident in my early twenties in which I broke both my legs but my right leg was badly smashed up to the point that I nearly lost the leg. Luckily I was operated  on by amazing surgeons and after undergoing  several operations over a few years, and working hard in rehabilitating myself, against all  odds, after some time,  I could walk pretty normally again albeit with some pain and with a permanent restricted bend in my knee. Many years later after falling in love with hill walking and with encouragement from so many people, I pushed myself to become a qualified mountain leader and for the last 8 years I have had a successful guided walking business with my  amazing partner Ben which we hope will continue to thrive in future years once covid restrictions are lifted. I like to think I may have inspired some of our wonderful clients over the years with my story and how much you can achieve it you put your mind to it. 

Moving to present time...I was told by my surgeons way back then that my knee would probably last about ten years without undergoing further surgery (it’s now 32 years since my accident so I’ve done not bad!)  I am however now awaiting complex surgery which should have taken place this winter but has been held off because of covid and now is a bit of an unknown as to when this will happen,  but hopefully sometime later in spring all going well. The operation involves a total knee replacement, a realignment of my leg which now has a very pronounced bow which causes me to limp, amongst various other procedures that are likely to be undertaken during  my surgery with a specialist in Glasgow. I suffer with a fair amount of pain daily but seem to mentally manage to deal with this in a positive way. I’m a little bit nervous about the surgery but it should allow me to move around more freely and be pain free so I can continue with my love of walking into my old age!  😁

I am trying to stay as fit and as positive as possible in the run up to my surgery and it also helps me mentally get through this difficult time of not being able to see family and what better way to do it but by setting myself this wee challenge whilst also hopefully raising money for great causes! 

I’ll update photos and details  of how I’m doing with my target regularly! 

I hope you will feel that you can donate something to my just giving page no matter how small and I appreciate you taking the time to read my story. Thank you so much! 

Stay safe and stay healthy 

All the best 

Rosie 

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