With only a few more amounts to come in from kind people who have promised to donate on pay day, the fund for St. Benedict's Hospice is looking really good in respect of last week’s #stayathomeultraduathlon. I'm very pleased, proud and most of all grateful to announce that so far £2130 has been raised for that event. Thank you once again to everyone who donated via http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/rungeordierun.
Last week's event also saw some key fundraising milestones reached and in other ways almost reached.
Firstly, the overall charity fund is now less than £300 away from a third of a million pounds. Specifically, the total amount raised is currently £332,711.13.
That is an amount that reflects some quite extraordinary generosity from a great many people.
!
St Benedict's Hospice now has the biggest share of that overall fundraising effort with £138,171.15 raised to date.
Of course, previous amounts and charities that I've raised funds for are £137,178.19 for The Children's Foundation, £48,911.42 for The Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, £8200.37 for Useful Vision and £250 for North of England Children's Cancer Research (my first ever fundraising attempt).
Take it as read that I won’t be resting until that overall figure has smashed through half a million pounds and I have made it across the remaining 10,000 miles around the world.
My ultimate aim is, of that half a million pounds, to raise over £300,000 for St Benedict's Hospice. It will only ever be a small way of showing how grateful I am to St Benedict's Hospice for the care that they gave my Mam during her final weeks. I know that she and my Dad would have been very proud of my efforts and your amazing generosity and kindness.
Given the current state of global affairs, who knows when the 6th and next stage of the run around the world will be able to get underway. The 2100 mile route from Kiev, Ukraine across Russia to Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan is scheduled to get underway in 2021. I suspect that it may actually be 2022.
If a delay does happen, then the prospect of an earlier, shorter 500 mile coast to coast stage across Iceland will become a possibility (More info here).
A stage across Iceland would totally fit in with the overall world route. It would be a 14 day event in the middle of winter. A whole new set of challenges would need to be overcome after the many sweltering hot campaigns of the past.
Thanks again for the support shown last week. It was a very late decision to run and cycle 600 miles without any training. Thankfully, it paid off and a good time was had by all!
