The Worcestershire County Council IT Projects Team (Darius Mason, Kirsty Gilmour-McAll, Sandra Heaney, Georgia Laight, Josh Collins & Abi Ireland) will be taking part in this year’s ‘Big Team Challenge’. We are doing this challenge through work, with lots of other teams in the county council taking part. The aim of the challenge is to encourage physical activity for healthy minds and healthy bodies. We will be aiming to complete the 'England's National Parks Route' over the course of six weeks (from Monday 3 June until 14 July 2024). That means we need to cover a staggering route length of 1,363 km (847 miles). This is a daily target of 7,500 steps per person!!!

This is a massive challenge for all of us, as being busy working parents (many with small people), we don’t get a lot of time! And two of our team have very recently had surgery. We all have our individual reasons for wanting to do this challenge (with more details below) but to push us to do this we have decided we would like to raise money for a charity very close to our hearts – Duchenne UK. One of the small people mentioned above has to live with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, which is a rare, life limiting, degenerative condition. Raising money for this incredible charity gives real hope for new treatments and the dream goal of a cure!! Please see the separate Just Giving page at the end for more detail of the impact of this condition.

Why are we doing this…..

* Darius – following knee surgery last year I have only just been able to start doing any exercise properly again so this challenge will give me a real push to try and improve my fitness personally while also having an opportunity to hopefully raise some money for a great cause close to everyone in the team.

* Sandra – hoping that this will give me the kick start I need to move it or lose it! Really keen to support Duchenne in whatever way I can too – a terrible thing for a family to have to live with.

* Abi – excited to be taking part in this challenge. I’m not a very active person, so keen to see what my average step count is. Other than doing general house chores and chasing my 4 year-old son around that’s the extent of it. To be able to support this wonderful charity is amazing as its one that is so close to our hearts.

* Josh – I’ve not been as active this year due to a couple of injuries, I’m hoping this will give me the push I need to get back into the active mindset and into some good habits again. Raising money and awareness for Duchenne is important to the whole team and I’m pleased to be able to contribute to help the cause.

* Georgia - giving me an incentive whilst on holiday to keep moving and earning those extra few cocktails as well as getting my butt out and about when working from home. I loved working with Duchenne last year on my personal challenge and want to keep raising awareness and helping them achieve their end goal!

* Kirsty – keeping active keeps me sane! But I’m not as active as I’d like to be these days, so this challenge will push me to get moving more!! Some days I only manage about 3000 steps! I’m so grateful to my teammates for choosing Duchenne to push us along, this charity gives real hope for our future.

Any and all donations will be gratefully received to help towards our fundraising goal. And the more we can raise the more push we have to make sure we get our steps in!!!

Please share this page to anyone you think who would like to donate. As always, any support you can give to this amazing charity is hugely appreciated.

Lucas McAll’s Just Giving Page:

https://www.justgiving.com/campaign/lucasfightingduchenne?utm_medium=campaign&utm_content=campaign%2Flucasfightingduchenne&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=pfp-share

LucasFightingDuchenne supports Duchenne UK, a charity that has one clear aim: to end Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). DMD is a devastating muscle-wasting disease. It is the most common and severe form of muscular dystrophy. Diagnosed in childhood, it mainly affects boys. Started by families affected by the disease, Duchenne UK is the leading DMD charity in the UK: connecting the best researchers with industry, the NHS and families to advance and accelerate every stage of drug development.