Farewell Dave Solomon

Today's a particularly poignant day to announce this challenge as we are saying farewell to David Solomon who succumbed recently to Motor Neurone Disease. Unfortunately, we only came to know Dave after he was diagnosed, but he had a great sense of humour and we're sure we'd have got on well socially. Unfortunately, Dave's speech was already badly affected by MND when we first met him so we missed out on his spoken humour but his eyes gave it away. Like so many, Dave battled MND with great dignity and courage. He didn't hide away, instead becoming the face of a national awareness campaign for the MND Association, and he was a regular at running events being pushed around in his wheelchair to raise awareness and funds. This was a natural thing for him to do as prior to his diagnosis Dave was a very good and keen runner, having completed 30 marathons. It's no wonder the running community flocked around to support him as he'd supported so many in the past. RIP Dave.

So with Dave and everyone else battling MND very much on our mind, we launch this year's big challenge, which goes by the catchy title "Mike's Mid-Life Crisis 52 Challenge"

The challenge involves running a marathon and two back to back mountain half marathons in 6 days, the events falling either side of Mike's 50th birthday. The 52 refers to the number of cumulative miles that need to be run in those 3 events.

As ever we're raising funds for the Motor Neurone Disease Association and Alzheimer's Research UK.