Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

Forever in our search to fill the void that rugby has left, Ricky Armstrong, Nick Hatton and myself (Steve Addy) stupidly decided to go BIG this time and take on the world’s toughest race in September. This race is called the Dragons Back in
Wales and it’s a 6 day mountain challenge which will see us travel 380km and climb over 57,000 feet in height over the mountainous spine of Wales, I know...we may have bitten off more than we can chew, as people are keen to keep telling us - but sure you have to have a whirl at these things.

Anyway, we have been quietly training away since Christmas and on one snowy day up Slieve Binnian we agreed we should raise some money for charity. Ricky suggested we do it to raise money and awareness for the condition that killed my dad David, my Grandpa Cyril, my cousin Peter and is a daily struggle still for Peters mum, my Auntie Helen – namely Myotonic Dystrophy (MD).

In my Dads case this muscle wasting disease slowly eroded his body from the age of 35 and his ability to embrace what he loved, sport, in particular Table Tennis, which saw him represent Ulster on over 45 occasions, was one of the things that really broke him, not being able to participate in sport – so we thought it fitting that as we are still able to do stuff (albeit slowly) and whilst we may feel uncomfortable at times, we can reflect on those that aren’t with us, or those with this, or any disease, who would love to climb a mountain but can’t.

Dad finally lost his battle in 2013 at the age of 61. I’ll not get into detail but obviously it goes without saying that this condition is s**t and has loomed over my family for a long time. I suppose this is us fighting back and embracing what dad used to say a lot, ‘use it (your body) while you’ve got it.’
I couldn’t ask for 2 better people to take this fight on with me, mainly cause Ricky is mentally stubborn and Nick might be even more competitive than me.  If you can spare a few quid to help motivate my fellow Dragon Slayers whilst helping smart scientists find a cure for MD we’d really appreciate it.  

As an added incentive and perhaps one that will really make you part with a few quid – we have all decided to quit the booze between now and the event start on the 5^th September. The last 8 weeks of our training is ramping up with back to back to back long days in the Mournes replicating our big days at the event, its going to be a tough slog and not drinking is going to make it much easier.

We have been very lucky to blag a decent amount of kit from Salomon UK - from shoes, shorts, Tee's, to poles, trail bags & water reservoirs! Decent kit is imperative for this sort of thing - so thanks Salomon (and check them out, stuff is great!)

We have set up a ‘JustGiving page’ to raise money – and every penny we raise will go directly to MDUK Charity - and in particularly to research dads strand of the disease 'Myotonic Dystrophy' that was so debilitating for him. Any donation no matter how small will help the research required and in the dark days in Wales for us, will fire us on to take that next step!

Cheers - Steve, Nick & Ricky