As most of you probably know by now, Kate spent about 3 weeks in the Myton Hospice inpatient unit in Warwick towards the end of her battle against the brain tumour. The staff at the hospice were amazingly caring and helped to get Kate's symptoms under control so that she could come home for a few weeks, before making her comfortable again after she had to return.

Inpatient beds cost the charity £460 per day to run, and Kate had great treatment in one for almost 3 weeks in total. Myton hospices need to raise over £9million per year to keep their three inpatient units and many other services running each year.

While Kate was in the hospice, I saw that they had a Great Wall of China trekking expedition in 2019 to raise money, and I knew immediately that this was the event I needed to do for them due to Kate's affinity to China. For those who didn't already know - Kate spent 5 months in China in 2000 teaching English in a Chinese school, and enjoying the delights of the country. Then in 2008 when I had the opportunity to work at the Beijing Olympics, Kate first encouraged me to go, and then came out to join me in China after the Olympics and we enjoyed a few weeks travelling around the country together.

I will return to Beijing in 2019 to trek 36km along some of the Great Wall of China to raise money for the Myton Hospices. I'm paying all of my own expenses so every penny of sponsorship will go to the charity. We will be visiting some remote parts of the wall, and "highlights" include a day where we have a 1000 stair climb to reach the wall from our accommodation, even before the days trekking starts along the wall which is famously far from level and flat! We will also be going away from the usual touristy parts of the wall to remote sections that have very large steps and in some places are in an unrestored state, which will make the trekking more challenging under foot. We end with a chance to lay a stone in a section of wall that is being restored so we will be a laying a stone in Kate's memory.