Hi Everyone, thanks for taking the time to visit my page and I hope you can give a donation to Diabetes UK!

So I guess you are all asking yourself why am I doing this challenge? And maybe it is a bit extreme for me to walk from London starting early morning on a Saturday 25th May and walking all day and thru the night and hopefully somehow ending up in Brighton Sunday lunchtime! I'm not exactly a spring chicken nowadays and I have not completed any challenges before, but a few weeks ago something in my head told me I needed to get off my arse and do something for myself and at the same time help other people, so this is it! For me its a massive challenge and I want to raise funds for people living with diabetes across the UK, so when you donate on this page the money goes straight to diabetes UK!

My story - Well 20 years ago I went to the doctors as I had lost a lot of weight, was drinking all night (water not beer!) and my energy levels and strength had completely dropped and it was then the doctor told me I had type 1 diabetes (great one!)  

So what does that mean? Basically my pancreas is knackered and doesn't work - simple as that and from that day on my life has changed in many different ways.

Just one point to mention as you all know you can have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes - they are managed very differently, but type 1 which I have, only effects around 10% of people with diabetes.

For me diabetes involves planning my day and balancing my food intake and exercise, I do this 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 52 weeks a year for however many years I have left..........So practically that involves injecting myself 5 - 7 times a day and testing my blood sugar levels by pricking my fingers 5ish times a day as well depending on what activities I have on for that day! Whilst this allows me a flexible lifestyle it is a hard constant challenge to manage and I don't always get it right!

If my blood sugars are too low I have a hypo which is dangerous and means I need sugar very quickly and if the bloods go too high I feel rubbish and cannot think straight with long term health problems so I need to inject insulin. My main problem doing this 100km walk (I think!) will not be the walking or the lack of sleep but managing the amount of sugar and carbs I eat throughout the 2 days as I will never have done this sort of thing before so I will be in new territory! (although obviously I will be training for this)

One thing I hope I have shown throughout my time living with diabetes to my friends and family and hope to prove with this walk is you can still lead a very 'normal' life and maybe in time and with ongoing research one day they will find a cure! But until then I will carry my 'little friend' (my injection pen) everywhere with me every single day!!

One thing I would like to mention is the amount of support I get from the NHS and the professionals which have helped me live as normal life as I can, its only 2 or 3 generations away and I wouldn't be writing this now so a big thank you from me! And the last little thank you from me is to my wife Sue for getting me thru all the hypos, always reminding me not to forget my insulin pen and helping me out!

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. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.