I have raised over £10,000 for Alzheimer’s Research in the past few years and this year I am going bigger and better. I plan to raise at least £2000 this year to celebrate turning 50 years old in June.  I am also upping the ante and taking on bigger challenges. Running a marathon is hard, and takes a lot of willpower and determination to finish. I usually only take on one marathon in a year, with two last year, so taking on four marathons and an ultra marathon is really upping the ante.

My challenge for 2022 is to run 4 Marathons and a 100KM Ultra Marathon, which will be the furthest distance I have ever run. My challenges are - 

#1 - Brighton Marathon - (26.2 miles) - 10th April, 2022 ✅6:41

#2 - TREADMILL Marathon - (26.2 miles) - 4th May, 2022 ✅6:30

#3 - Edinburgh Marathon - (26.2 miles) - 29th May, 2022 ❌ pulled out of race the day before, due to being unwell all week with a virus and chest pain 😭  - I will add another marathon in somewhere, to make up for not doing this one

#4 - Cotswold Way 100KM Ultra Marathon - (62 miles over two days) - 25th & 26th June, 2022 ✅&❌- I found this much harder than expected and definitely needed to have done more training on very big hills, which is difficult living in a relatively flat area! I gave it 110% effort, but decided to stop at the half way point of 53KM after 15.5 hours - will be back again next year to try again!

#5 - London Marathon - (26.2 miles) - 2nd October, 2022 ❌😢 This is the one race I wanted to do the most out of all my challenges for this year, but unfortunately, it is not to be. I have had to pull out of running just a few days before the event due to a medical issue. 

I have also taken on a few other races along the way including -

Cambridge Half Marathon - (13.1 miles) - 6th March, 2022 ✅

Bedford Autodrome 20 -  (20 miles) - 27th March, 2022 ✅

Bedford 20 - (20 miles) - 4th September, 2022 ✅

MY REASON FOR RUNNING 

Watching the person you have loved for your entire life, slipping away from you is one of the hardest things I have ever had to deal with.

Mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2017, although the signs were there for several years prior to this. She has deteriorated so much since May 2020 since having a fall and hitting her head. She is now living in full time care and no longer knows who I am, which is so hard to deal with. She has no concept of time, place or space. She struggles to speak and her lifetime of precious memories have been taken away from her. She spends more and more time sleeping now and is often asleep when I visit her. When she is awake she  likes to walk up and down the corridor, but this puts her at risk of falls as she can often be unsteady on her feet. 

Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease which eats away at the person's brain, leaving them a shadow of the person they were and takes away their ability to look after themselves with simple everyday tasks, like eating, drinking and communicating.

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