I guess a bit of background first, Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) itself is quite a rare disorder in which your body's immune system attacks your peripheral nervous system, first symptoms include pins and needles and muscle weakness which lead to paralysis, nerve pain and a few other things. It's usually triggered by an infection and back in Oct 2005 I was knocked on my arse by it following mycoplasma pneumonia.

Not going to go into too much detail here but needless to say it's not pleasant, the recovery is painfully slow, some allowances still have to be made and for full disclosure, I may have one or two lingering unkind thoughts about the lack of information available and treatment received at the time, even though I'm one of the lucky ones and that is why this is so important.

In a typical 'I'm turning 30 this Sept so should really do something' type way and since I can't afford a fancy car, and even if I did, I can't drive, I thought a 100km walk over 2 days taking in the countryside to the seafront with a bit of camping thrown in would be a sensible and not at all silly thing to do.

GAIN are a small charity who support not only those affected by GBS but CIDP and other associated inflammatory neuropathies (website below). They are fully reliant on support as they receive no lottery or government funding and I would love to be able to raise some money on their behalf.

If you have any questions about any of the above I'd be happy to answer them as best I can or at least point you towards supporting material if you'd like to know more. 

Thank you so much for reading this far and if you can help me towards my mammoth target that would be absolutely bloody brilliant. 

Steph

Some links:

http://www.gaincharity.org.uk/

http://www.london2brightonchallenge.com/

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/guillain-barre-syndrome/basics/definition/con-20025832

http://www.gbs-cidp.org/