I wanted to let
you know of a little challenge myself and my daughter have set up this
month all in aid of the amazing charity Spinal Research UK.
We have decided
to undertake a combined wheel/run of 400k in May. Emily, my daughter,
will be running - I will obviously be wheeling. We would like to
raise money for the Spinal Research charity which is something very close to my
heart. It was 14 years ago when I suffered a spinal stroke and overnight my life moved into the
twilight zone of a wheelchair user. It was a life changing scenario
and one that I still rail against daily. The world is not
really designed for wheelchair users - so many everyday menial tasks
take so much longer and even just one step into a building can mean the
difference between engaging with life or just going home.
Now, I'm a bloody-minded
character as I'm sure a lot of you will know and I have been given way more
opportunities to continue with life and work than a lot of people in my
situation enjoy. My injury in my spine was
reasonably low down and I still have full mobility in my arms (and mouth - as
my family frequently comment 😂).
I remember during my stay in hospital someone dropped a bottle of water
accidentally on the floor - I was the only person out of the 8 there who had
enough arm mobility to bend down and pick it up! 14 years later and
I think about that one thing nearly every day. Can you imagine your
life not even being able to pick up something you dropped on the floor.
We would love
to raise money to create a little more hope for my fellow comrades diagnosed
with spinal injuries and pushing on
with research can open up opportunities
for improvements in their lives.
Pre wheelchair
I really enjoyed running - the exercise both physically and mentally is
liberating. It weirdly took until our enforced stay at home during
Covid to realise the potential of wheeling - that and the fact that you have to
wheel up the hill to get to the Bell (the journey back is
exhilarating!).
So far I
have clocked up 84.25km (just over 11 hours of wheeling) - so I'm getting
towards the halfway mark!
If you would
like to support this please do go to our Just Giving page - any donations would
be absolutely wonderful - just click Here
Spinal Research is the UK’s leading charity funding
medical research around the world to
develop effective treatments for paralysis caused by spinal cord
injury. Every year 1,000 people in the UK and Ireland are paralysed following
an injury to their spinal cord. They
receive no government funding and rely entirely on the support of the
public to raise funds for research. Because of
the efforts of our supporters, we have funded innovative medical research that has achieved a number of
groundbreaking changes in the field.
Thank you
Sally