Minehead. Prior to planning this challenge, if anyone mentioned Minehead, the first thought that came to mind was Butlins. Now, Minehead connotes the beginning of this epic fundraising adventure.

Starting in Minehead on Monday 8th May, I am running 630 miles home to Dorset along the South West Coast Path . The route’s elevation is 4 times the height of Everest and takes me through Somerset, Devon and Cornwall before reaching my home county.

This is a self-supported and self-funded run. Obviously, donations are pretty crucial to this being worthwhile and a success, so any and all support would be absolutely amazing.

Oh, and did I mention that I have two stress fractures in my left hip? Just to spice things up a bit!

Any money raised will be split across two incredible charities, both of which mean a great deal to me.

The first is for a disease which kills one man every 45 seconds in the UK*. A disease that ‘got’ my beloved Dad. Anyone who knows me, will know that my Dad is my hero, my friend, my spider catching champion and my biggest cheerleader. Since the dawn of Alyce time, my Dad has been a runner. A bloody good one too. A-sub-3-hour-marathon-takes-over-your-life kind of runner. Since he persuaded me to join our local running club in 2013, he has been my biggest supporter. If he’s not running alongside me, he is cheering me on at the side-lines. He ran with me on my first 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon (he was nearly 70 when we ran Manchester marathon!! What a machine!) And although the cancer drugs he is on has slowed him down, there is still no stopping him. He forces himself out for a run with me at least once a week, but he finds it incredibly hard. His determination to keep moving forward and to fight this silent killer is inspiring and I want to
show the same support he has shown me for all these years by taking on the longest run of my life.

*I’m talking about prostate cancer if you hadn’t already guessed.

My Dad is one of the lucky ones. His fight continues. Please help to stop prostate cancer killing the men we love. Your donations will:

£25: Pays for a Specialist Nurse for hour. That nurse helps men and their families affected by prostate cancer by providing essential medical, practical and emotional support.

£100: Will cover the cost of analysing six blood samples. This analysis helps researchers find new ways to identify aggressive prostate cancer that will help men with advanced disease be diagnosed earlier.

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Did you know that heart disease is the leading cause of death each year? British Heart Foundation is the second charity that is close to my heart (pun intended), because heart and circulatory diseases have affected nearly everyone that I love.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and Coronary heart disease (CHD) cover such a wide spectrum of conditions….heart attack, heart failure, high blood pressure, abnormal heart beat, stroke, angina (to name just a few).

One of the said people that I love, was my favourite (only) Aunty who we lost 20 years ago this November. She dedicated so much of her time for charities and the community, and she was a real inspiration to me in my formative years. I was 16 when she died. I wrote her a poem which I shakily read aloud at her busy funeral. One of the lines in the poem, I promised that I would ‘follow in her footsteps’, and up until this point I’ve done a lousy job of following up on that promise. So, now is the time to step up and try to raise as much money as I can to make her proud.

Your donations will:

£10: will pay for a researcher’s toolkit, containing all the test tubes, flasks, dishes and gloves a busy team of researchers would use in a day.

£32: Pays for one of our early career scientists to conduct two hours of important research.

£300: Covers a whole day of a project to build new healthy pieces of heart. New heart tissue could be used in the future to treat heart failure.

I know that times are tough, but I promise that even the smallest donation will make me do a little happy dance and I will be forever grateful to you.

If you have got this far then 1) wow, you have a lot of time on your hands and 2) thank you.

Love, Alyce x