Run for dementia

It now just means a whole lot more🙁

It breaks our heart to now know for sure and too share with you all, that this amazing lady Edna Reynolds is the next to be affected be this awful illness Dementia........

How most of you all know I decided to run a 161km trail run in September 2018 & a 350km trail run in February 20th 2019 for Tony Reynolds my amazing father in law. To help raise much need funds for Alzheimer's Donegal and Alzheimer's WA, today thanks to everyone we've raised just over $4500

At the time we started this, we'd no idea of what was to come. I thought the biggest challenge would be the training and the recovery from the 100miler then continue to train for the 350km......How wrong was I.

Now for any family to have a parent with Dementia is tough, it feels like the world has kicked you in the nuts...it puts huge stress on all the family members, having to watch someone you love deeply slipping away bit by bit and then care for that family member in our case Tony. I know for sure the toughest decision the Reynolds family had to make was to decide to put Tony in full time care early last year.

So try and rap your head around then seeing the same thing happening to your mother a few months later....... in late November Edna Reynolds started showing signs that things where not quit right. Becoming slightly confused, led to becoming more and more confused, led to weeks in hospitals, test after test, not eating right, more tests.

NOW place yourself in the family shoes, being told it's a form of Dementia your mother has........ imagine hoping and praying the doctors have it wrong, this can't happen to us again, how are we going to manage.... Dementia is a cruel, nasty disease and like most diseases it doesn't care if you've money, if other family members have it. It just sweeps in ripping worlds apart, causing all type of challenges for the family members.

I've witnessed the strength of will the Reynolds family have at first hand. I know how devastated they all are, how they took very little time to feel sorry for themselves and just got on with the unfortunate hand they been dealt. I take great strength for their strength, I'm proud to be part of their awesome family.

They asked me to share their story in hope of raising as much funds as possible, to help the families living with Dementia and hopefully find a way of stopping this disease in the future. It's now the 2nd highest killer in Australia and most other countries.

So in 5 weeks I'll start a 350km trail run, (that's the same as running from Malin head to Wicklow or Perth to Northcliffe near Denmark) with over 10km of climbing, in the Australian summer, watching out for everything that can possible kill a person in the bush.

I've no idea how I'll manage this, I know there'll be tears along the way, suffering that will go on and on, times when it's all to much, when I want to just quit...... but I know that as long as I'm still able, I'll draw on the strength the Reynolds family has shown over the Last 2 years in this fight against Dementia. That all the well wish and the messages of support and the donations of you all will see me across that finish line.

We've all just under 5 weeks to really create something special, to raise awareness and much need funds for the great cause.

Please help up spread the word far and wide, get your family and friends involved in helping with fund ideas. I know all of our friends and have already been very generous with the money, now we as you to ask your friends and family to get involved also.

Sorry for the long read..... but something's are just important.