By Georgina & Phoebe
Even a live Second World War grenade couldn’t stop us!
On Sunday the 28th of July we began our quest to conquer a 25 mile kayak to raise money for Invest In ME Research. This journey consisted of a very early start, a late end to our tiring day and a shed load of rain in between. We started at Little Haywood, near Rugeley with our team of many supportive helpers including one in a kayak too, who without them it wouldn’t have been possible. Our planned route was to follow the Trent & Mersey canal from here through 14 locks and all the way to Willington in Derbyshire 25 miles by canal.
After an hour and a half of non-stop rain Georgina began to feel the cold and we decided it would be the right decision to stop at the next lock to collect a vital and necessary dry jumper. Another hour or so passed and we were nearing Fradley where we knew we would be provided with hot food and supportive friends and family.
After lunch we knew there was a long way to go but our friend’s banner gave us a helping boost of perseverance. The next 10 miles were rather tough, as we knew we still had a long way to go. As we neared Shobnall Marina we were instructed by police to leave the water as a live grenade had been discovered in the canal by a magnet fisherman. The canal was full of boats as it had been shut for sometime and soon the bomb disposal team were also in attendance! We decided the only option was to walk with the 3 kayaks along the main road to get back to the canal. But thankfully before we reached the road a kind family let us through their garden to get to the canal quicker.
When we approached the last 4 miles of our trek it was encouraging to see many family members reminding us we could do it. However as time passed it became gradually harder as it was getting later and we were getting more tired.
We finally reached our destination where we were greeted by familiar faces and lots of support. We both were exhausted, proud and ready for a hot drink. We had completed 26.3 miles in total with an average speed of 2.7 mph. Everyone there was very supportive and donated generously. We would like to thank everyone who helped, donated and supported us as this is such an important yet small charity. https://www.wonderful.org/fundraiser/endurancekayaking-49b77049
A huge well done and thank you to Phoebe and Georgina and everyone supporting and cheering on these two stars, undaunted by an unexploded grenade! The girls did a lot of training to lead up to this grueling challenge. They wrote on their fundraising page,
“We are two total novice 13 year olds taking on a huge challenge to kayak 25 miles in order to raise vital funds for biomedical research into ME. We are doing this after Georgina’s sister was hit with this horrid illness age just 14 and became very poorly. ME is a multi- system disease affecting not only the neurological system but also the immune , muscularskeletal, endocrine and cardio vascular. Its life changing in short with a quality of life generally worse than a person with end stage cancer.”
The girls have raised over £2,200 including Gift Aid thanks to their Wonderful sponsors! Wonderful is a fee-free fundraising platform so every penny donated will be spent on vitally-needed biomedical ME research: https://www.wonderful.org/fundraiser/endurancekayaking-49b77049
Thank you Phoebe and Georgina for doing a Kayak for ME!
Thank you for supporting Invest in ME Research!
P.S. To our blog subscribers, apologies that you did not receive our last blog by email, marking 8 Years Doing It for ME!
Georgina and Phoebe you are two absolutely incredible young girls with an amazing willpower and mental strength, I was nearly in tears by the end of this blog because I know what your family have been through and continue to go through and what an amazing thing it is that you are doing for your sister and people like her. I am so proud of you xxx