Blog: Blood, Sweat and Tears Challenge

Dr Nicola Brown from the School of Sport, Health and Applied Science at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, recently ran 70 miles from Portsmouth to London, raising money for the charity DKMS (delete blood cancer), here, she reflects on her experience.

It has been over a week since we completed our Blood, Sweat and Tears Challenge, running 70 miles from Portsmouth to London, and we still can’t quite believe it is all over. After months of training and endless planning it feels strange (and we admit, quite nice!) not to wake up and think ‘how far have I got to run today?’

 Completing the 70 miles was tough but we really enjoyed it and were overwhelmed by the amazing support we had along the way. To have so many friends, family, colleagues (and at times complete strangers) supporting us, running with us, and cheering us on, was incredible and meant such a lot. We have always said we are only as good as those that support us and if we learnt anything from this challenge, it is that we are lucky to have some pretty awesome people in our lives. Oh, and that you don’t actually need to pack 18 sports bras, 112 tops and 15 pairs of shorts to run 70 miles!

Our motivation for running was inspired by loved ones who have battled illness, as well as complete strangers who gave us/our loved ones a lifeline when they needed it. Over 6,000 people need to give blood every day to meet the demands of hospitals and patients, and over 2000 people in the UK (and 37,000 people worldwide) are waiting for a life-saving stem cell transplant. Our aim was to raise awareness of this and encourage people to register to give blood and join the stem cell register.

 Although we haven’t had time to do a full count up yet, we know that well over 150 amazing people did this for us and we cannot thank them enough. Although we didn’t set out to raise money (as we thought asking for peoples blood and stem cells was cheeky enough!) so many people asked how they could sponsor us that we finally relented and we are delighted to have also raised £2,235 for the charity DKMS (delete blood cancer). It costs £40 to register each person the stem cell register and every penny of this will go towards this.

If you would like to support the Blood, Sweat and Tears Challenge you can visit www.justgiving.com/bstchallenge.