UPDATE

I had intended to do this with the team from 30th June but am having to postpone my part due to personal reasons. I will do this in due course ...watch this space.

On the first anniversary of our beloved colleague “Taggy”s death I have decided to join Jill, Laura and hopefully others in a bit of a workout.

Whilst the fitter members embark on the epic 4x4x48 Goggins Challenge. I'm opting for a scaled version incorporating Taggy's collar number 1444.

Starting at 8pm on 30th June 2023 I will complete a 1 mile row (machine of course) and repeat every 4 hours for 44 hours. I might mix it up with a different 1 mile activity but it will be 1 x 4 for 44.

My last row will be on Sunday 2nd July 2023 at 12pm.

We have spoken to the Tagg family and they have nominated Team Ruby which is a charity set up to support the Lily Foundation by two serving Lancashire police officers, Nikki and John Marshall. Their daughter Ruby Wren Marshall was born perfectly healthy on 24/02/21 and remained so until she was around 6 months old when she was found to be severely anaemic. Her bone marrow wasnt working well.

It would be a further 5 months until she was diagnosed with Pearsons Syndrome; a mass deletion of her mtDNA. This means some of her mitochondria in her cells (which provide the energy for the cells to work) do not work properly. As she grows the faulty mtDNA will start overpowering the healthy ones resulting in failure of her pancreas,  followed by liver, kidneys, eyes, ears, heart, muscles and her brain.

Science can and will beat this, but it needs to be sooner and not later for Ruby,  She just needs better batteries in her cells. And this fundraising event will help with this.

Also, the team wish to raise money for Dementia UK in Ray Bell’s memory, and this is why we have the two charities linked on this page. As such our overall target is £2229 (when you know, you know!). We are in no doubt that this challenge is going to be incredibly tough and will test our physical and mental resilience but it is felt that this is a fitting way to remember both Taggy and Ray. So please dig deep and help us reach our target for these two very worthwhile charities!

Thank you for your support