I'm taking part in this Challenge42 to raise money for the wonderful Hospice of St Francis, who provided the most incredible care to my schoolfriend Neil, and supported his wife and children.

Neil was my first running buddy in our early 20s, and as he helped me round a weekly circuit of Tring's streets he inspired in me a life-long love of running. So it seems appropriate that I'll be taking part in this running challenge, fitting in 42km of runs in the week leading up to what would have been Neil's 42nd birthday.

Thanks for supporting this really worthwhile cause, I'm sharing Liz's story below:

In the week commencing 5th February 2024, we are aiming to raise funds for the Hospice in memory of Neil. Neil was really into keeping fit, he was a keen footballer in his 20s and was captain of a couple of teams. When he was in his thirties and wanting to spend more time with the family on a weekend, his fitness goals changed. One of the challenges he used to regularly set himself was a workout which involved a 5km run, 5km row and a 5km bike. He would aim to do this workout as quickly as he could. This to me is now known as ‘the Neil workout.’ Neil ran two marathons, several half marathons in addition to parkruns. On a Sunday he would really enjoy a ‘slow plod’ as he called it along the Ridgway.

Unfortunately, when Neil became terribly ill in early 2022 (just before he turned 40), quickly his treatment plan and the side effects stopped him from exercising. He would say cancer slowly took away from him all the things in life he enjoyed, that started with exercise. He was so sad he could not run anymore. Instead, he challenged himself to walk Bethany slowly to school each day and to get a newspaper on the way home. That became his routine, until cancer also took that away from him. In the Hospice Neil refused a frame to walk with and when a wheelchair was necessary, he liked to move it himself. Most of the time he was there he determinedly got about using a walking stick until eventually he was told he needed to stay in bed, which was in his final two weeks.

We should not take our health and the ability to exercise for granted. If people don’t feel like moving their bodies, maybe because it is raining, they are too tired, the thought of it doesn’t appeal or they don’t want to ruin their hair (okay – that was me!), I now say to them, think of Neil, he would have loved to have had the opportunity to go for a brisk walk, a run or a bike ride. I absolutely love running in the rain and if I see a rainbow, I feel like Neil has sent it as a message to me.

It would have been Neil’s 42nd birthday on 11th February 2024. I want as many people as possible to join in with ‘Challenge 42’ to remember him on his birthday. The number 42 is significant, he did not get to see his 42nd birthday, my life changed at 42 with Neil’s diagnosis, but also, Neil has run two marathons, which are just over 42km long.

The challenge is simple:

Move your body and if you can in the week up to his birthday, build up to 42km of mileage. This could be bike, ski, run, row, walk, skip, burpee broad jump, if it is movement, it counts.