9 years ago I started my fundraising journey for Sunshine & Smiles, running my first marathon. Since then I have tried to complete a fundraising challenge each year to raise vital funds for this small, local charity, which has a large piece of my heart!

It is our 10th birthday this year and we have set up the Sunshine 10x Challenge as a way of raising funds but also to include anyone who would like to, to take on their own 10x Challenge, it could be anything; 10 star jumps, 10 laps of the local park, reading 10 books, baking 10 cakes.

My goal when I ran Manchester marathon in 2014 was to raise funds to set up a partnership with Phoenix Health & Wellbeing to offer free counselling & complementary therapies to any of our Sunshine families and to contribute to running our Speech & Language therapy sessions. I am proud that we still offer both of these to our families.

Becoming a more established charity can sometimes make fundraising more tricky, we tend not to need 'tangible items' so much now but we do need people & spaces to be able to run all the amazing sessions & support! We have over 25 staff & volunteers now!

As for many charities Covid was incredibly challenging and the last two years has seen us run on a deficit of around £20,000. Fortunately we have funds in reserve and we are not at any risk of closure but it has brought home why we need to constantly apply for grants and fundraise to continue our work but also to enable us to improve and develop; there is always so much more we would like to be able to do!

This year my 10x Challenge is to take on 10 challenges between now & the 19th November - our proper birthday!

Some I have done before, some are entirely new & some are yet to be decided!

Please support me to help Sunshine & Smiles keep going & growing!

The Challenges:

Manchester Marathon

London Marathon

Leeds 10k

Sunderland World Series Triathlon

Yorkshire 3 Peaks

Great North Run

Leeds Abbey Dash

Busk 5 songs in public

2 x TBC

Thank you!! ☀️🥰