This year I have decided to take up the mother of all New Year's Resolutions - to walk the Pennine Way. I'm a huge lover of the great outdoors so this seemed the most natural thing to do. Since I was a child, I have been a fell walker - scaling some of the highest peaks in the British Isles with my friends and family and loving every minute of it. Plus, with all the issues playing out in the world we live in right now - from the pandemic, to politics and poverty - I wanted to do something really positive for myself and others that would be challenging, raise energy levels and be generally excellent for our wellbeing: physically, mentally and spiritually.
So to begin, I am a 48 year old woman. I work as a solicitor for Napthens in Preston, Lancashire as Head of Plot Sales. It's a demanding and rewarding role and Napthens are a great firm to work for. About 3 years ago I was probably about 3 stone heavier than I am now and hadn't exercised since my early 20's. I decided it was time to change when I started struggling to get up the stairs to get on the train into London where I worked as a Solicitor, at the time. I was born in Lancashire but lived in Essex for just over 12 years. I have an old injury to both knees which is the result of a motorbike accident I had in my late teens. At the start of 2019 I started to attend my local gym to try to get fit. I asked for the help of a personal trainer, Seral Mehmet, to help me on my journey and I still attend sessions with Seral three times a week via Zoom, despite him living in Essex. Seral started the Zoom sessions during the first pandemic lockdown in England to keep his clients fit when we couldn't go out anywhere! Over a period of time, through this regular exercise and a healthier diet (apart from a few cakes here there 😀) I started to lose weight and my knees started to recover.
When I moved back to Lancashire in May 2021, I rekindled my love of the fells and started walking again. Last year, I set myself the challenge to climb four peaks in the Lake District in four weeks with family, friends and my little dog - Ruby-Hope. We ended up covering these in 5 weeks due to the lovely British weather 😏 However, in that time we covered Scar Fell, Stickle Tarn, High Hartsop Dodd and Catbells and raised money for "Mind" which is a charity close to my heart. I was so surprised and encouraged by the amount of support I received and by the reaction to my posts on social media, that I committed to doing something bigger and more life transforming in 2022.
And that, my friends, is where I am now. As you can see from what i have written, I am no athlete. I have no doubt that this challenge will be hard and probably one of the most difficult things I have ever done or ever expected to do in my lifetime. However, whatever happens, - whatever twists and turns I take along this path - I plan to have fun, live and laugh (at myself, most probably 😂) as much as possible.
Day 1 starts tomorrow...
As part of this experience, I will be raising funds for the Napthens Foundation - to provide relief to those in need by reason of education, youth, age, ill-health, disability, financial hardship or other disadvantage and aim to raise £15,000 in the first year. As part of these fundraising efforts, the foundation has partnered with My Happy Mind, an award winning, ‘profit with purpose’ organisation, who support primary schools on mental health through preventative strategies that give children the skills and tools to thrive. The benefits to the schools and the children themselves is clear - results to date show a 43% decrease in mental health referrals to the NHS for those schools where the My Happy Mind programme is in place. You can read more about them here: https://myhappymind.org. By our fundraising efforts, we aim to support five local schools take advantage of the My Happy Mind programme.
To donate to this wonderful cause please go to my Sponsor Me Page on:
https://sponsorme.charitiestrust.org/event/f80f9ae6-ffbf-4fd8-b40b-1b82d43a3c26
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