No rest for the wicked!

Hi Everyone!

My last blog was in fact my first and now I have already been here six months. Time does actually fly when you’re having fun!

As usual we’ve been rather busy in Fundraising, the last few weeks have been building up to this past weekend and I was excited/fearful of what was to come. That’s because Saturday was the Olympic Park Run, a five mile event around the Olympic Park which finished in the stadium. Oli Hoare (my fundraising colleague), Darren Smith (long time fundraiser) and Chris Deighton (NRAS medical advisor) also won places in the run which meant NRAS had a bit of a gang on the day!

We were all wearing t-shirts that quoted ‘We were the first to cross the Olympic finish line’. The past tense used in this quote worried me when I received my pack in the post. As mentioned previously I’m not exactly known for being athletic and have never really enjoyed sport, so crossing that finish line was not going to be easy for me! The nerves went away as I started running; I put my music on and set off. Oli disappeared very quickly into the distance as he is training for the Brighton Marathon on 15th April (Good luck Oli!). The Olympic Park was nice but if I’m honest I had a bit of a memory blank about it. It seemed to go on forever but my epic playlist was spurring me on. When I got to the stadium I was so relieved and as I came in I saw the NRAS team cheering me on from the stands! I later regretted the joke sprinting that I displayed for my fans at this point, as I couldn’t walk very well for a while after. Crossing the finish line was one of my biggest personal achievements and I know it won’t be my last fundraising challenge! So far Oli and I have raised over £500 which is a great feeling. Darren and Chris were both super speedy and have also raised a lot for NRAS. You can find all of our donation pages at www.nras.org.uk/fundraisers...

The Fundraising team were not finished there. Oh no! On Sunday morning we all met at The Ahoy Centre in Deptford to see off the craziest/most amazing consultant rheumatologist in the world, Dr Martin Lee, as he embarked on his incredible challenge, ‘Round the Isles for Rheumatoid’.
Martin has prepared for this journey for a long time, hoping to raise awareness of rheumatoid arthritis and £100,000 for NRAS by kayaking 2,600 miles around the UK mainland. His inspiration is his Aunty Maureen who has lived with RA for many years. The trip will take around 4 months to complete – ouch!

We waved Martin off (he is extremely quick so this didn’t take long) and have been tracking his progress ever since. Have a look at the map on our website www.nras.org.uk/kayak4RA where you can follow Martin via a tracking device while he is kayaking. He’s done really well so far but the weather is prevented him from carrying on today. You can find out more about the challenge at www.martinkayaking.co.uk and keep tabs on his journey via www.facebook.com/martinkaya... and www.twitter.com/martin_kaya... If you wish to sponsor Martin please go to www.virginmoneygiving.com/m...

As such a supportive bunch I hope you will all do what you can to publicise this challenge and together we might make headlines! Hopefully Martin’s efforts will shine a light on RA and help people understand it better. Fingers crossed!

Wishing you all a lovely Easter whatever you are doing!

Ruth

Online & Social Media Coordinator