Hello all, 

I hope you’re doing well. 

For this post I thought I’d spend some time talking about the charity challenge I have been doing for The British Heart Foundation and The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund. 

Before I start I will just give you a bit of info about this challenge. I was born with Congenital Heart Disease and I had open heart surgery at a week old. My surgery was done by one of the founders of The Children’s Heart Surgery Fund, which is why they are one of the charities I aim to raise money for. Since the 21st of August 2020, until the 21st of August 2021, I aim to try and raise £3000. Due to the Coronavirus situation I am unable to go out and do bucket collections to aid my total. So I’m solely relying on my social media to try get the word out there.

Check out What’s Virtually Happening 

Heres a piece about me in the Bradford T&A

In order to raise the money I aim to complete 660 miles in total, by counting daily steps and doing cycling on the bike in the garage. Maybe more I haven’t got that far yet. 

What impact is all of this having? 

Doing this challenge is difficult for me for various reasons. The first is I have a severely curved spine. You may have heard of Scoliosis. Basically my spine is curved into an S shape, my spine is so curved that it almost touches my shoulder blade. It is very painful. I have to take breaks at work to sit down and I take painkillers everyday. I do stretches given to me by my physio, I also have sports massages once a month to release any tension which has built up over time.

My physio says the cycling is good for my back, providing I do not over do it. That I sit properly and maintain good  posture. Which I aim to do. Also because I am using the bike in the garage it is safer. When you’re Visually Impaired like I am it can be tricky finding something which can help to keep you fit, but you can also do independently. 

The other thing which is great about cycling is that as we have had to stay at home a bit more due to Coronavirus I found myself snuggling with my circulation. One of the issues I have is Circulatory Disease. I often get cold, my fingers and toes got numb and white, or purple. During the first lockdown period I found my toes going purple more often and my skin went all flakey. So I started to try move about a bit more. But there’s only so many times you can wander about the house. 

We ended up phoning the Doctors, they were really helpful and sorted me out by putting me back on some tablets I’d not been on in a while and giving me some cream for my toes to help the swelling go down and reduce the itching. It was rather painful. 

Later in the summer I decided to start cycling. It has really helped with my circulation. Although I am still on the tablets. Before you say anything, no amount of life-style changes will enable me to come of my tablets. My toes still go purple and my fingers still go white. But the cycling helps me circulation quite a lot. 

Besides this challenge helping me with my back, although I do have to be careful because it doesn’t stop the pain, it really helps with my core strength and it has the additional benefits of helping my circulation.

I am finding this challenge to be hard, right now I am sat in my for chair with my MacBook resting on a pillow so it is a bit higher up so I don’t have to bend my neck. If the benefits are better core strength and better circulation, then I have to just not push myself too far with the cycling. I am counting my daily steps on the days I am not cycling, so I do have to take it easy at times. 

Right now for example, my whole right hand side aches. But I am sat down, I am wearing layers to stay warm and I am not doing any cycling today. 

If you can please support me in my challenge to raise £3000 then please follow the link to my Virgin Giving page. 

I am not asking for a lot. I just want to raise awareness of a few things: 

My chosen charities and the incredible work they do. 

The impact of this challenge on my day to day life. 

The challenges I face after being born with Congenital Heart Disease. 

I am not one to sit and moan. I have a job and I do what I can to help manage the difficulties I live with. All I want is to help people see that if their child is born with Congenital Heart Disease, that there can be hope. The lovely people at the Children’s Heart Surgery Fund are there from the moment the family is given the news their little one needs open heart surgery. They ensure they have a hand to hold while it feels as though their world crumbling around them. 

The British Heart Foundation are helping to find a way in which we can make the lives of those with Heart Conditions, Vascular Dementia and Circulatory Disease feel like there is a future. Because there is. 

The pandemic has had such an impact on our NHS and Charity sector. It has impacted areas you would never have thought about. Researchers who have had to put their lab work on hold, but yet their time frames to complete their research have remained the same. It is crazy. 

Heart Disease is Heartless, it doe not care about Covid, or what you were planning to do with your next holiday. If it is going to happen, it will happen. Which is why if you take a look on the BHF website you can find a whole host of things which can help you live a healthier lifestyle. Living healthier can have a major impact on your heart. Seems like an obvious thing to say. But it is true. 

Which is why I am trying to do a bit more cycling to help with my circulation and my back. If you can support me that would wonderful. Donate to my cause and lets Beat Heart Break Forever. 

Thank you.