Hello all. As you may be aware, I have the life limiting genetic condition Cystic Fibrosis (CF). CF is a nasty disease that slowly fills the lungs and digestive system with mucus, allowing chronic infections to take over. This leads to decreased lung function and frequent intravenous antibiotic courses (IVs).

In April 2019 I experienced the most depressing moment of my CF so far - my consultant booked my next hospital stay in whilst I was completing the current one. As a result of this my good friend Julia Nicholson came to stay to perk me up a little. 

She gave me what can only be described as the best/worst pep talk. Long story short at 1:30am we put our names in a ballot. The next morning she was full of regret, but I was not too concerned. After all I'd been this stupid before with a marathon, and lightning never strikes twice.

Oh, but it does.

And so I learnt in the October of 2019 I had a long way to run in 2020. At the time of finding out I was on IVs in an ambulatory care room, a course which ran into the next one with no break. As a result I deferred my entry to 2021. 

I have chosen to use this crazy opportunity to fundraise for the Royal Papworth Hospital Cystic Fibrosis Research Fund. This is a fund for clinicians at my hospital to use on research projects to improve the lives of CF patients. Although the fund is only for Papworth clinicians, the results are shared at conferences and journals, and in that respect benefits CF patients worldwide. Examples of past projects include Project Breathe; a home monitoring system to detect exacerbations early.

2019/2020 was brutal in terms of IVs, coughing blood and hospital stays, so training has been tough. There's also been a little virus you may or may not be aware of that's been getting in the way of me leaving my own home for periods of time.

Therefore I politely request that you consider sponsoring not by distance travelled but by hours spent running. Or perhaps by volume of tears shed.