So......heres a bit of an update - this challenge originally was to be done from 2023 to 2024. Unfortunately in February I had a bit of a health scare and ended up spending a day in hospital with the symptoms of a heart attack (turns out it wasnt - but still very scary!) As a result training had to stop and I wasnt fit enough to run the marathon - so this part of the challenge has been deferred until 2025!

However - the rest of the challenge is still going ahead - its a month to go until the London Ultra, and hopefully I can throw an extra Royal Parks Half Marathon in for good measure in October.

The Ultra for me is the ultimate challenge - ive been training hard, and putting my body through hill training which I hate with a passion, but on 22nd June I will be taking part in the London Ultra - I'll have 11 hours to get through 55k, but hoping to make it in under 10 hours if I can!

Any donations would be massively appreciated!

Thanks

Darren

Original post :

Another year has passed and it is now 11 years since Isaac was born and sadly passed away aged 6 days.

Over the next year we have three events, totalling 118kilometres in distance - which is roughly 1 kilometre for each hour that Isaac spent at St Thomas' and the Evelina before he sadly passed away. We hopefully will be doing a few other fundraising bits and pieces as well including hopefully a big raffle provided we can get some good prizes donated to the cause.

So what are the events for 2023 - 2024!

They start on the 8th October 2023 with the Royal Parks Half Marathon. To add to the fun on the day I will be running this in the tiger outfit - pictures to be included and hopefully we can get lots of pics on social media on the day with other runners taking pictures of tiger loose on the streets of London!

Then on 28th April 2024 we have what will be my 5th (and probably) final London Marathon! This wont be in the tiger suit - survival is enough of a challenge just getting through the 26.2 miles (42Km)

And then finally we have my biggest physical challenge yet! On Saturday 22nd June 2024 I will be taking part hopefully in the London Ultra 55k running/walking/crawling from Woolwich across south London finishing in Richmond Park! Again i need to stress this wont be in the tiger suit - 55k is likely to take all day even without the tiger suit!

Last year amazingly we made it over £50,000 raised in memory of Isaac and we would love to keep the momentum and the money coming in. Every pound can really help the Evelina to remain the incredible place it is for so many poorly children - and not just for children in London, but across the whole country!

Thanks for reading, and any donations you are able to make are massively appreciated. We couldnt continue to do these stupid events and put my body through this without all of your support - and if I manage to hit my target for the run hopefully I will get to do something a little less challenging on my body next year - like an abseil off of St Thomas's ;)