It's been a busy few months.
Winter rolled into spring which has rolled into summer. The temperature's currently hovering around 40°C and shows no sign of cooling down yet.
But instead of taking it easy and reading a book under the shade of a palm tree, I've been busy. Aside from the teaching and the writing, I've fallen back in love with kayaking and when I have a spare couple of hours, I'm out on the river training.
I've also decided to raise funds for Winston's Wish, the leading childhood bereavement charity in the UK, because 24,000 children lose a family member every year. And I've seen first hand what that's like with my nieces and nephews, then aged seven, five and four, after my brother killed himself.
So, I've set myself the torturous task of walking 60km (30 miles) over the South Downs on May 11, 2013 for three reasons:
- I stopped exercising after my brother died because I was too weak to do anything. I want to get that fitness back. And trekkking non-stop to cover 60km is going to be pretty tough going.
- I want to break the taboo of suicide.
- I want to raise £2,000 for Winston's Wish.
I'm not looking for huge amounts of sponsorship because that's unrealistic in these tough, economic times. Instead, I'm asking you to donate just £1 and if everyone does that, I'll have reached my target. If you've ever found any of my articles or posts on Italy useful, then maybe you could click on my Virgin Money Giving page and let Winston's Wish have your £1, too. The bereaved children you'll be helping will be extremely grateful. And so will I.
I'm writing a weekly blog about the Big Em and M Challenge here and will be covering suicide, childhood bereavement, my attempts to shape up and snippets about my brother. Will I see you there?
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