My Story

Hi! My name is Dan. I'm 40 and I live in East Dulwich, in South East London.  A few years ago my mum was diagnosed with Alzheimer's and vascular dementia at the age of 63, just months after the death of her mother at the hands of the same disease.  Since then she, and my Dad, have been hugely supported by Susanna at Living Words and by the Hythe Dementia Awareness Forum.  This year I thought I'd try and raise some money to support the brilliant work they do.  

Amongst other things, Susanna has spent a lot of time talking with my Mum about her memories, her life, and all the amazing things she has done.  She has collated that into a book so that while mum's memory slowly fades, those precious memories are not lost.  The Hythe Dementia Awarenes Forum has also been a huge support to my parents as they have grappled with how to get support and from where.  Thank you to all of you - knowing Mum and Dad are well supported within their local community is enormously reassuring to me and my brothers.  

Now, I run marathons for fun, so I didn't feel I could ask any of you to give me money for running a straightforward marathon!  Instead I am proposing to run from my house to my parent's house, which will be approximately 120k, a little under a triple marathon.  I aim to do it in one go, in one day, with stops for food, changes of clothes etc, but otherwise one continuous effort.

I will set out in the early morning of Saturday 5th October 2019 (weather permitting) and head towards Rochester.  After completing the first marathon I will pick up the North Downs way which will take me deep into South East Kent, before heading south on the Saxon Shore Way for the last leg into Hythe.  I hope to get there as it gets dark.

Please give generously as the work these groups do is amazing, and I'm seriosuly never going to do this again as I suspect it will nearly kill me!

And, if you would like to come and join me for a leg of the run please let me know, I will need people around me to keep me going and I would LOVE to have you along, even if it's just to come and tell me how terrible I look!  I will be well supported on the day and we will be able to get you in and out of the run without too much difficulty.  I won't be running very fast! At all.

Thank you.

Dan