About 1 year ago, my Dad started to not feel great and was starting to look like he was losing weight. We put this down to depression as we lost my Mum in June 2016. However, by June 2018, he had lost so much weight we had him admitted to hospital and within a week or two he was in intensive care having had a tracheostomy and put on a ventilator. Over the next 6 weeks his condition stabilised but there was no sign of improvement. It was then at the beginning of August, we got the shock of our lives, he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease. All along it would seem the MND was the cause for the rapid weight loss.

This has been a shocking experience, and to think that picture I have used on my Just Giving page was only 15 months ago and he was able to scale the O2.

Investec's pledge to raise £100,000 for MND certainly came at a time when I have felt helpless to my Dad's condition, but now there is something I can do. MND currently has no cure and this is why I have joined the Investec campaign to help crack the code as to what causes this fatal disease

I have decided to run the Eden Project Marathon in mid-October (very little time to train, but I got to make it a challenge!)

The Eden Project marathon is 70% trail and follows a challenging route through the spectacular mining heritage and beautiful countryside landscapes. I doubt I will be able to take much of this in.

This is going to be a very tough challenge, but knowing I am raising money for such a good cause will provide me with great motivation.