Catherine's journey

"Whilst walking the dog one evening with my brother Alexander, we were discussing the challenges I wanted to set myself this year, I'd had a nasty accident last year while I was riding a motorbike, I was hit by a Transit van and ended up not only with a stay in hospital, but with severe whiplash and blood clots on my lungs (which has been to date my most terrifying experience in life yet).

We'd heard of the National Three Peaks Challenge and it was while I was researching this I found out about the Yorkshire Three Peaks.  

Alexander, my brother has been amazingly supportive through it all and said he would come with me, we decided to go to an organised event through Mersey Adventure as they had check points throughout and if it got too much I could get a lift back from most of them (not that I would have, it's just nice to know the opportunity is there).

Training had been hard, my motivation for something that seemed so far away came and went, and I wasn't half as fit as I had wanted to be when all of a sudden it started to hurtle towards us... then disaster, I damaged my left quad in the gym on the penultimate Wednesday before the challenge, so much so, it swelled up and I was unable to walk without a limp until the Sunday before! All last minute training had to go out the window until I knew I wouldn't damage it further by trying to exercise it.

I had some amazing friends to help get me round, my brother Alexander obviously came, as did Mark Akehurst, a friend I met through the motorbikes.

He was in fact one of the first people to come visit me in hospital and has been amazingly supportive of me all the way through! It was great to have him along, he was a motivational star the whole trip even after picking up a few niggling injuries along the way, his forces background kept him motivated and focused when I was using all my motivation at points to simply keep going, he helped us all along and even said thank you for inviting him at the end!

Alex Simpson came along for the fun of it, it was something he had done when he was younger and he saw it as a personal challenge to be able to do it again. He kept us highly entertained throughout the journey as he had on a training weekend in Snowdonia earlier this year and provided us with Kendal Mint Cake when humour started to fail (usually on the way down from the top!). Alex managed to stay mostly cheerful the whole challenge despite a slip which we found out afterwards resulted with a stress fracture in his left foot.

I mentioned him earlier, so I will tell you all about him properly now...

Alexander Sheppard... my "baby" brother, now nearing 6' and towering above me. He followed my love for motorbikes and I encouraged him as much as I could, and through bikes we have become the closest of friends as well as siblings and I feel honoured to know him. He has supported me all through my mad cap ideas, he joined me when I went on a kayaking mission earlier this year and came with me on the Yorkshire Three Peaks because he wanted to keep an eye on me and make sure I didn't do anything daft I think, as well as using it as a personal challenge for himself.

I found the Forces Children's Trust via a link that was placed on Facebook, I read about Billy McKay's challenge and looked into the charity more... it is something I am very keen to support and Mark and Alexander were behind me 100% when I suggested we did the challenge for the charity. It was even nicer to see that it was linked to the Just Giving website which means it was so easy to set up a sponsorship page for the FCT and doesn't limit the people you can ask for sponsorship as anyone anywhere can use it.

We set a target of £600 between the three of us, and we're still a way off, however I am really hoping we will be able to make it by the time the page closes.

http://www.justgiving.com/walkingbikers"

Kind regards, 

Catherine.