The Big Six

General information

Sometimes, the words 'thank you' don't even begin to convey the depth of gratitude that you feel. They just don't hit the mark. That's how I feel everytime I say thank you to the amazing team who work tirelessly to keep my eldest son, Lewis (5 years old) alive.

Lewis has Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), a life-limiting complex congenital heart disease which cannot be cured or fixed. The life expectancy of children with this condition is much shorterthan any parent would ever wish for. It's shorter than I really want to think about. Without surgical intervention his condition is fatal, and requires a lifetime of drugs, operations, procedures and palliative care.

Lewis has an amazing team of professionals around him who keep him breathing, keep him living, and keep him smiling. No amount of 'thank you' can ever compensate for that.

In order to try to repay the amazing team who have supported Lewis, I have decided to undertake my biggest physical challenge to date. The 'Big Six' is 6 physically gruelling challenges over a ten month period. The aim here is to get fit, to learn, to grow, and most importantly, to raise money for The British Heart Foundation & awareness of HLHS; a somewhat unknown disease. So in a bid to rasie £20,000, I'll be undertaking the following events with a few friends joining in along the way:

September 14th: Chill Swim - a 5.25mile open water endurance swim from one end of Lake Coniston to the other.

October 19th: Demon Run - a 10 mile trail run, designed by ex-military personnel, complete with muddy and wet obstacles to navigate.

January 26th: Winter Tough Guy™ - Tough Guy™ is staged over a course of eight country miles. It consists of a gruelling mud run followed by a beasting through The Killing Fields assault course - not forgetting the barbed wire, cuts, scrapes, burns, dehydration, hypothermia, acrophobia, claustrophobia, electric shocks, sprains, twists, joint dislocation and broken bones!

March 23rd: Run Liverpool Half Marathon - a 13.1 mile run around the Liverpool Docklands

April 13th: Virgin London Marathon - a 26.2 mile run around the streets of London (I'll be doing this with a twist; subject to acceptance)

June 15th: BHF Bike race - a 62 mile cycle race from London to Brighton.

Please watch this short video to understand the motivation behind such a huge challenge. Please be aware that this video contains post surgical images:

http://animoto.com/play/iB0iainzRX60GBgWBy6aDQ

If you would like to support my challenge, you can do so by sponsoring me. You can visit my fundraising page at:

http://www.justgiving.com/TheBigSix

You can also donate by texting BIIG66 £x to 70070 (replacing the x with £1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10) via Vodafones JustTextGiving service. It's free to use, the sum is added to your next phone bill, and 100% of the donation goes to the charity. Please dig deep and help to spur me on to achieve this huge challenge!

Thank you xx