Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I have had to create two fundraising pages. Please may I ask you to split your donation to between my two fundraising pages (or if you prefer donate all to the one charity) .

Here's the other link if you want to split your donation

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising-edit/Diane-Lonergan1

And more importantly here is why I'm doing it.

On 5th September this year my husbands brother had 3 near fatal heart attacks. Clinically he died 3 times, his life was saved only by the dedicated medical professionals of the NHS. We can never thank them enough for bringing Tom back to us.  His first 'fatal' heart attack occurred at home, due to an unbelievable series of lucky breaks, the ambulance arrived within minutes and were able to resuscitate Tom. His condition was clearly very serious and he needed to be air lifted from Marlborough to Southampton General Hospital. This is only part of a very long story which has culminated in Tom making a good recovery which now continues at home. We have so many people to be thankful to of course, however two charities who rely on public funding played a major part, firstly the Air Ambulance, without this service Tom would not have survived. Also completely outside of the NHS is an organisation dependent solely upon donations, this is Wessex Heartbeat who fund and run HeartBeat House. Without this 'Home From Home' our family could not possibly have coped with our bedside vigil. This house which is just like a home is on the hospital doorstep, charges nothing whatsoever for accommodation and provides a vital supportive environment during a frightening and stressful time. I can't emphasis enough what a lifeline this establishment was and is. Hotels and guest houses are not places you really want to be when going through this experience and are too far away from the hospital to feel comfortable leaving a loved one.  Even in the midst of our fear and despair I knew that I wanted to thank both of these institutions for their unstinting care and compassion and simply being there.  Clearly the best thanks I can give them is raising funds to continue the wonderful work they do. I am aware that many of my friends and acquaintances are not based in Wiltshire or Hampshire and might therefore think it is not a charity they wish to contribute towards. As a Kent resident I never dreamed I might be thankful to them, and who is to say that Wiltshire and Hampshire residents have not contributed to our local charities. I have decided to cycle the route from Marlborough to Southampton General hospital, . I have yet to calculate the exact distance or route, but I know I can cobble together the National Cycle routes and anticipate it will be a total of about 65 miles, I won't be travelling 'as the crow flies' as Tom did. Not much you may think, but my challenge is that I will not have cycled the route before and therefore know I will get hopelessly lost (I always do), I will be doing it alone and potentially on a cold day.It will also be one of the shortest days of the year so allowing for this and getting lost, for me it will be a challenge. I have also set myself a high sponsorship target but would love to achieve it, however if I don't I will still be very grateful for every penny I collect. Please help me reach this goal which is close to my heart. Why have I called the challenge 'LifeLine', I think that speaks for itself. Thank you all in advance.