My dear friend Julie and I, are walking for my daughter Jasmine, the bravest little butterfly I know. She battles with EB (Epidermolysis Bullosa) every day of her life. Living with EB makes us appreciate the smallest of milestones in Jasmines life, ones that we intitially thought she may never reach – a cuddle, a crawl, a spoonful of food, going to school. Every day she shows us that she’s not giving up, so neither will we.  

For those that don’t know anything about EB, it is a painful, genetic skin blistering condition which in the worst cases, can be fatal. It causes the skin to be fragile like a butterfly wing, resulting in blisters and skin tears from the slightest friction. It also affects the internal linings of the body. I won’t go into the nitty gritty gruesome details, but please visit www.debra.org.uk for more information.

There is no cure for EB, but I truly believe that there is one, and one that will be found in Jasmine’s lifetime. Every penny that is raised for DebRA will help towards the home visits, the family support and the research into finding a cure.

ABOUT US AND THE CHALLENGE

For those that know the pair of us, you'll know that exercise is not one of our strongest qualities, but you may also know how stubborn we are. So when Julie flippantly sent me the link to the 'Ultimate Challenge - London to Brighton 100k Walk' website, thinking I'd find it funny, I missed the point and said 'Why not?'. And there our journey began...

I first needed to understand exactly how far 100k was, in a distance I could relate to...turns out it's exactly 100km from my house to Birmingham Children's hospital, where our lifeline of support are. Quite fitting some would say! But still, one hell of a long way.

Julie and I have been friends for over half our lives (that's scary enough!), so I can't think of someone better to do this with. We've been training as much as we can, but how do you prepare yourself for 22-36hrs of solid walking?! We have put ourselves through a lot of pain and discomfort, but realise that it's still pretty insignificant compared to the blisters that Jasmine endures every day. It is for this reason that there is nothing that will stop us reaching the end, even if we have to crawl to the finish (short of being carried off on a stretcher!).

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