26/08/10 I thought it was about time I updated you all on my activites. Unfortunately my triple challenge has taken a bit of a dive. As you know I achieved my first challenge. However the Snowdon climb was first postponed until October but has more recently been cancelled, due to not enough people wishing to do it.

My swim is also not now possible for various reasons. As disapointed as I am not to have achieved what I set out to do I thought I just needed to look for an alternative to keep me going!

So I have revisited my challenge!

As you know I achieved the 6k run  in a good time and realised just how much I enjoy running. So to make up for not managing to achieve the climb and swim I have decided to embark on a new challenge and have registered to do a 10k run on November 14th in Milton Keynes. At the moment I am running 6.5k once or twice a week. To achieve the 10k I have to increase my weekly runs to 3-4 times and begin to run further. So this is not an easy option. My ultimate goal is to enter a half marathon next year and who knows and I have always wanted to enter the London Marathon and never thought I could do it so wathc this space! I hope those of you who have sponsored/donated to support me will understand and continue to spur me on. 

19/06/2010 Latest update! I have succesfully achieved my first challenge. I ran 6K and managed to achieve it in 37 minutes. It was acutally 3.75 miles and I had previously only run 3 miles in 38 mins. Today I beat this time by running the 3.75miles in 37 minutes. I realise I just love running so no stopping me now I am aiming for a 10k later in the year! Watch this space. Thank you to all who have sponsored me meeting my target is looking possible. The latest photos have now been added so take a look.

In 2008 I walked 200 miles Coast to Coast from St Bee's Head to Robin Hood's Bay. Although I did this as my summer holiday I also used the opportunity to raise much needed funds for The Laura Centre. In total I raised £1,300. I had a rest last year, apart from completing three sculptures for The Laura Centre garden in Abbey Park Leicester (see the photos of the unveiling) this year I decided I needed a new challenge.

My challenge is to do a triple event, three events that I have never tried before. They are a  6k run on June 19th in The Laura Centre 6k fun run. Followed by climbing Mount Snowdon on July 3rd and finally taking to the water and swimming a mile in August or September (date to be confirmed).

Now you might think that these are not that challenging which is true if you have already achieved such events, but for me, well I have never completed these distances before. I managed a 3k run last year which is the furthest I have ever run. Yes I have climbed the three  mountians of England the highest being Scafell  at 978metres (3,209) but I have never climbed Mount Snowdon which is a height of 1,085m (3,560ft) and a walking distance of 10 miles to the summit and back. As for swimming well I have only taken up swimming again this year after about 15 years. One mile is 74 lengths of a 22 metre pool.

So you see for me this is a real challenge one that I aim to use to beat my 2008 total of £1,300. This years target is £2,000.

WHY? do I hear you ask. Well that's easy to answer. 

The Laura Centre is a self funded charity and it costs £500,000 a year to keep the centre open. We see approximately 400 clients a year. Our clients are those that have lost a child (often in very sudden and traumatic circumstances) and children that have been bereaved of a significant person. We are also increasingly called upon to give advice, support and training to schools, social workers, NHS staff and many other organisations. For more information about The Laura Centre go to our website and take a look at www.thelauracentre.org.uk.

The following is what I wrote last year when my sculptures were unveiled and I feel that it sums up why I want to raise money to keep The Laura Centre open.

"My idea for the sculptures came from the work I do as a counsellor working with adults who have been bereaved of a child. I have worked as a counsellor at the Laura Centre for the past three and a half years and have great respect and admiration for the clients with whom I work. It is not easy to decide to come for counselling or to share ones innermost feelings with a complete stranger so I think that anyone who arrives in my counselling room has great courage. 

When people try and describe the pain that they are experiencing having lost their child I hear phrases like 'it feels like my heart has been ripped out' and 'I have nothing left inside'  or 'I can feel the pain right down in my soul'. The grief is often indescribable and people struggle to find words to express what it is they are now feeling. 

The sculpture 'Heart and Soul' was inspired by the clients I have worked with over the past three years and this sculpture depicts loss and grief the shape representing the heart and soul of a grieving adult. 

The whole form of the sculpture represents the whole person and the containment of their grief.

The upper concave shape represents the heart. The concave depicts the hollowness that the child's absence leaves behind and the roughened surface of this hollow tells of the pain that is left in the heart.

The lower concave represents the soul and depicts the emptiness, disbelief and confusion that is left and has to be grappled with before the person can begin to move into a new phase of their life.

Heart and Soul is quite a sad piece and I wanted to balance that sadness with hope and the sculpture 'Sun Rising' does this by depicting the sun rising on the horizon. The message here is that the sun rises every day and brings with it new life".

Please consider sponsoring me to raise some extra funds to support this very speical service.