On December 5th 2011 I ran into Wellington, just outside of Cape Town, after running 1425 along the Freedom Trail from Pietermaritzburg.  This took me a total of 57 days, of which 11 were rest days. In the 46 days I ran over South Africa's highest pass of 2500m, through many, many rivers, over mountains and mountains and mountains, and through the occasional forest.  This was most definitely the hardest thing I have done in my life, I have never been so tired both physically and mentally.  But it was all worth it to raise the money that I have so far, for Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre and Cattery in Nantwich, Cheshire.

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I work as an Inspector for the RSPCA.  Everyday the RSPCA works to prevent animals being subjected to cruelty and help rehabilitate and nurse wild animals that are sick or injured.  To be able toachieve this requires money to fund the Inspectors, Officers, Vets, animal centres, equipment etc.  All of which is not possible without donations, as the RSPCA is solely funded by public donations. 

The RSPCA has four wildlife centres in England and Wales.  Stapeley Grange is located in Cheshire and takes in animals from all over the North-West, the Midlands and Wales.  In 2010 alone they had 5490 wildlife admissions and 825 domestic.  Since opening in 1995 the staff at Stapeley Grange have helped 75,000 animals brought in by Inspectors, Officers and members of the public.  

 

To be able to help all of these animals the centre needs lots of specialist equipment to deal with the large variety of species admitted on a daily basis. The money I hope to raise will go toward their 'equipment fund'. They are currently trying to raise funds to renovate a couple of their mammal sheds that house a variety of orphaned and rescued wildlife casualties, which by itself will cost £4000. Some of the hospital rooms, which are multi-purpose to cater for the large variety of species they accept, require new equipment and holding facilities, which will amount to US$6000. Not to mention a new anaesthetic machine £2206 and oxygen concentrators £899 which will replace the older machines and that will not cost them a penny to run once bought as they extract oxygen from the air, matting for outside pools £3000 that supports the many hundreds of waterfowl that pass through the centre each year and funds to buy radio tracking equipment for post release monitoring £10,000. This is all on top of the basic equipment needed to feed and house the animals.

 My aim is to raise £15,000, which equates to £10 per mile that I will run.  100% of the money I raise will go directly to the charity.  All of this money will go into the equipment fund for Stapeley Grange Wildlife Centre and Cattery.

In October and November 2011, I am going to run 1500 miles from one side of South Africa to the other.  The money I hope to raise would equate to £10 per mile that I run.  To complete the challenge I will be running on average 25 miles per day over mountains, across deserts, through forests and lots of dust!

Follow me on my blog http://freedomrunning.wordpress.com (sorry don't think can put a link on here)

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