Dave and I, along with two friends will be attempting our first Ultra Marathon, Lakeland 55 on July 13th. Not only is the distance daunting, the course too is testing with 3 mountain passes and 7,000 feet ascent.

Training for this has been pretty much all consuming and thrown us right out of our comfort zones. It has forced us to even change how and where we run. From fast paced, 5 and 10k on road to 5 hour slow and steady trail runs.

You bet we have had our share of highs and lows. Every time we completed hours on our feet that we set out to do, we felt a little bit closer to our goal. For example, I was buzzing after a 4+ hour run on Via Francigena in Tuscany a couple of months back. Equally, there have been days when an injury, a health issue or just exhaustion scuppered our plans.

We will be testing out these months of training on Sunday when we attempt Coniston Marathon, ahead of our Ultra in July. (It will be my first marathon. Gulp!)

Seeing that so far we have not taken on a challenge as tough doing an Ultra Marathon, we thought to fundraise. Any pennies you can donate will be highly appreciated.

We would like to split the funds across two causes.

Indian Ladies in the UK (ILUK). It is a not-for-profit, run for and by the community, that speaks to me. It supports and rehabilitates migrant Indian women who suffer abuse and abandonment. Being a victim of domestic violence is bad enough. But it is even tougher when someone suffers it in a country not their own, where their visa status doesn’t allow them recourse to public funds or other sources of help or refuge available to citizens and permanent residents. ILUK supports these victims, providing them food, shelter, legal help—and flight tickets back to India, if that might be their only way out.

The second cause we would like to support is closer to home. For our neighbours’ happy teenageer, Daniel, who has been in the hospital since Nov 2022, following a brain tumour diagnosis. He has had several surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy since. And even though Daniel can see, hear, identify people and smiles when he is happy, he is non verbal, requires assistance to sit up and has various complex medical needs. He requires a suitable environment in order to be discharged from the hospital, which cannot be met in the current family home. The funds, along with the monies from the sale of their family home, will enable the family to buy a suitable property that can be adapted to Daniel’s needs.

Thanks for reading and your kind support.