Thank you very much for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

The event I will be participating in is the "Racing the Planet -  Atacama Crossing". This involves covering 250km in 6 days across the driest desert on the planet, and was described by Time magazine in 2008 as one of the ten most difficult competitions in the world.

I am entering this event in order to raise funds for research into Friedrich's Ataxia Desease which is a cruel, life-shortening, degenerative, neuro-muscular disorder, from which the daughter of my very close friends is suffering. So far, there is no cure for Friedrich's Ataxia, but research is ongoing, and I hope that the money I raise and channel through ATAXIA UK, will help their research projects. 

So please dig deep and donate now.

I will be keeping a blog leading up to and then during the Atacama Crossing, so please follow my trials and tribulations, my pains and my blisters, as I attempt to complete what will be, without doubt, the most challenging event I have so far faced. 

Many thanks for all your support.

With lots of love,

Marilena xx