Since the turn of the year a mate and I have started going to the gym in a bid to aid both of our fitness, and while it was off to a good start, illness (and laziness) prevented near three-weeks of attendance and we were back at square one. Our plans in the gym were to simply get fit, and maybe lose some weight (whilst leaving it very vague on what level of fitness we wanted to be at or how much weight to lose) but we needed something else to motivate us; we needed a goal; we needed something to work towards.
And then I saw a Facebook advert.
In my youth I was always a runner but life, age and driving (especially driving) have taken any and all endurance away from me, and I want it back. I’ve never been one for upper-body strength and I’m fine with that, but running on a treadmill and being exhausted after three minutes was a bit of a wake-up call that I wanted to prioritise endurance over strength, and seeing an advert for the Chester Half-Marathon (13.1 miles) on April 29th suddenly gave me something. A goal; a target. I’m quite competitive so I know that will help inspire me to be faster for it, and working with a friend will help both of us push through with it rather than going it alone. But I still felt there was room for any extra motivation: charity.
As a bit of a backstory, my 11-year-old niece suffers from Vasulitis (I’m not 100% on its causes, effects and information, so read about it here), but it’s quite a rare disease (especially for a girl her age) and, being quite rare, can often go under the radar when it comes to charity fundraising. So, the combination of wanting to fundraise for charity and knowing someone who suffers from a relatively unknown illness painted a very obvious picture of what to do.
I’m tackling this mission from relatively nothing to a half-marathon competitor in the space of 10 weeks, with my unhealthy eating habits yet another factor adding unnecessary hardship to this mission (you’d be surprised how little healthy foods I actually eat!), so I’ve got so much in the column of failing that any slight form of success will be an achievement to me! But what I would like to ask, is if anyone could help sponsor for this cause. I have set up a JustGiving page here where you can go to donate. As charities will tell you themselves, anything is better than nothing, and I will be posting information about the overall run after the fact and possibly even a small interview with my niece and her mother about how day-to-day life is affected by having Vasulitis.
If you can donate, then thank you so very much! And if you could please share this post any further, the more eyes on this illness the more help it can get in being prevented or cured in the future. And you can stay up-to-date with any posts on my Instagram.
Links:
- https://www.medicinenet.com/vasculitis/article.htm#what_is_vasculitis
- https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/steve-j-andrews
Steve James 
Well done! Just donated (under my real name! Ha!) good luck with it all 😀
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Thank you!! I will keep you updated 🙂 started training at the gym today and gunna try (emphasis on the ‘try’) and eat a bit better! Haha
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