Last year I lost my mother to cancer. It was very out of the blue and a real shock. She was a true force of nature and always worked with and helped those more in need. She believed in following her dreams and always pushed me to do the same. She was my guardian angel and my hero. She was fit and healthy but smoked. I also smoke and have done so for more than 30 years. To be honest I am scared of dying like she did and i'm really struggling to come to terms with her death, So to keep her memory alive and to change myself for the better I decided to start running. Setting myself personal fitness challenges. The day after her funeral I ran my first 10k (a tough obstacle race) and since then I have run my first half marathon (1 hour 50) and during lockdown finished my first marathon distance. I’m always complaining about the lack of flat areas to run around where I live, so to embrace this fact, I joined the Everest at home challenge. During May and June I  added 8848 meters of accent to my running.  (I have never run so many hills before)

I plan to keep setting myself challenges and hope to raise some money and awareness for a few great causes as i go. 

This year staff and friends of ZipWorld are fundraising for Welsh Hearts this year in memory of 3 much loved and missed members of the team that passed away last year. Sadly, too many young people die of undiagnosed heart conditions, so we're aiming to raise £24,000 to be able to hold the first 3 heart screening sessions for young people in north Wales and purchase defibrillators which we can donate to the local communities around our sites. This is a great cause that will help save lives.