Can You Help Me?

To those in the UK.

Please text KMOR84 £ (and your amount) to 70070

If you read my blog you will see I have been on a bit of a fitness craze recently. I think it has helped me some what in making me feel better about myself. So far I have lost nearly 3 stone since April last year. Most of it being since I started exercising in September time. It has been a massive part of my life recently. And although I haven't been great at times, I think the healthy living side of me has helped me for things not to escalate further. So that I am motivated to continue, I have decided to set myself a challenge.

Here you can see my weight loss journey so far...

I feel prevention is better than a cure. The charity I have chosen works with people in my city to help them with all aspects of their life.

Anyone who knows me will know that until about 6 months ago, I was allergic to exercise and walking up a slight hill left me out of breath. So, yeah, I was pretty lazy.

In an attempt to get fit, I have started going to the gym and have been going walking. To my complete surprise, I have found that I actually quite enjoy getting out in to the countryside and getting up high, and unexpectedly I didn't break out in hives and melt in the fresh air.

I turn 30 this year which is bloody scary stuff (I am going somewhere with this so keep reading), I thought I would quite like to achieve something before I hit the big 3-0, and what better than a challenge?

I wanted this challenge to be something that will push me to my maximum, something that I have to prepare myself for and something that I can look back on in a few years and be proud of myself for achieving it. I was going to go to Wales and climb Snowdon, but my Dad suggested The West Highland Way. Being as though this finishes in Fort William, I thought I could just tag Ben Nevis on to the end of it. The main challenge will be the WHW.

The WHW is a long distance walk going between a little town just north of Glasgow (the one in Scotland, not Ontario, Canada), all the way through the Highlands to Fort William. The total ascent over this walk is 17,405 feet. That's a lot of ups and downs! 

I am going to tackle this walk with the aid of my fantastic parents, although, unfortunately, I think I am now a little too old and large for my Dad to carry me on his shoulders like he did when I was a wee one. So, I will just rely on some being pushed in the right direction and their encouragement. 

We are going to do the walk over 8 days. We will be walking between 9 and 16 miles a day over undulating, rough terrain. Then, we will be climbing Ben Nevis the day after finishing the walk (weather permitting of course. There will more than likely be snow at the top and possibly still some snow falls, so we aren't going to risk life and limb to go up, but we will try our very best).

So why Base 51?

It's an amazing charity that offers so much to the young people (under 25's) in the city and county of Nottingham.

I'll just copy some stuff from their website as they can say it so much better than me...

Base 51 recognises the challenges facing young people particularly those, for example, who experience relationship breakdown in their families, find school difficult, have been in care, are a young parent or homeless. A “wrap round” service in one centre enables young people to work through these issues, make the transition to adulthood and contribute positively to their local community. Base 51 is in the city centre and is well used by young people from all areas of the city and walks of life.

During 2010-11 Base 51: Supported over 1,500 individual young people with 7,953 visits to the centre. Provided over 1,000 meals, drinks and sandwiches. Young People: 364 saw the centre nurse 246 attended counselling sessions 231 helped with housing issues Quotes from young people:

“Base 51 found me somewhere to stay for the night whilst I had nowhere to go”

“Coming here made me feel better within myself and feel like I had someone to talk to so I didn’t feel like I’m alone or worthless”.

Base 51 works in partnership with local and national statutory and voluntary organisations to provide the services it offers. Some of these services are counselling, family support, a health service, a housing service, learning support, plus many more.

I could write pages and pages on what a great job and what a range of services they offer. But I won’t. Here is a link to their website instead…check it out.

http://www.base51.org.uk/

So please, donate a little, after all a little leads to a lot!                 

So please help me in my quest of raising money for charity. Please text KMOR84 £(your amount) to 70070.

You can donate anything from £1 up. The thing about texting is you remain totally anonymous.