About

Spending 5 months away on sabbatical recently was just incredible - without a shadow, the highlight was getting the opportunity to spend 30 days of it in a Buddhist retreat in Kathmandu. Whilst there, I was surrounded by wonderful people. One of these fine people was my roommate, Daniel Gjerde from Norway, who blew me away with his truly selfless designs to create and run a charity aimed at providing mindfulness, yoga, and meditation services to vulnerable children in care within Norway, and in due course around the World. Over a coffee on a truant break from teachings, I immediately saw similarities in what Daniel wanted to achieve and my friend from camp, Bobby, who sadly lost his life fighting in Afghanistan before being able to return to America to his passion of working with children. It is in this respect that I'd like to honour Bobby's memory by helping Daniel get his charity off the ground, so if you could please dig deep we'd be ever so grateful. It's worth mentioning, whilst I haven't got the others in the original team with me on this challenge - as a group, the Turkey Droopers have raised to date well over £20k in Bobby's name and long may it continue - special thanks if you have previously donated! Finn & Rolly, for example, are also running the London Marathon this year in honour of Bobby for Mencap (https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/James-Rollinson1), so if you feel inclined please do also donate to them! In terms of the challenge, we're going to be running the Midnight Sun Marathon in Tromso, Norway. Now, I've never actually run a formal 10k, half marathon, or marathon - and neither has Daniel - so we're understandably very nervous. At the moment, I can't run further than 5k, am running 7 min k's and am being overtaking by every other runner out there. That said, from personal experience, it's funny how the memory of something or someone dear to you in the lowest moments of these challenges can really spur you on - and I'm confident I'll smash it, even if it isn't world record pace. Thank you in advance and wish us luck :) AJ! A little word on why I use Givey: When you make your donation through Givey, the Charity receives 100% of the donation. Justgiving, Virgin, etc. are all great fundraising tools - however, they take a fair slice of donations to cover their marketing costs and I instead of the money going there I want Daniel to take the lot for his endeavour!