Snowdon Hourseshoe walk in aid of Psuedomyxoma Peritonei reseach

On 21st August 2010 I along with several freinds will be attempting the Snowdon Horseshoe walk to raise funds for Basingstoke and Northampshire Hospital -Pseudomyxoma Peritonei fund. The hospital is one of only two specialist centres in the country and the money will help buy equipment and fund research into this little known form of Cancer.



Only 1 in every million people will contract this desease and information and statistics are scarce. I was diagnosed with the desease last year and underwent surgery at Basingstoke on the 2nd of Feb 2010. I spent 12hrs on the operating table, a week in Intensive Care and a week on the specialist ward.



This blog will follow the team and their training over the next few months and ultimately report on the walk itself.........



There is also a link to our Just giving site below to allow money to be raised on line. Please give generously!







Thursday 20 May 2010

The Snowdon Horseshoe.......



I'd made my mind up back in February whilst led in bed on C2 ward in the Basingstoke and Northampshire hospital that I wanted to raise money to help research into Pseudomyxoma Peritonei(PMP) and help provide equipment for the specialist ward.
I was recovering from the MOAS (Mother Of All Surgeries) after spending 12hrs on the operating table and a week in intensive care and was now doing well in the specialist ward and there was talk of me going home. I wanted to give something back.
PMP is a very rare form of Cancer that forms in the abdomen and only one in every million people will contract this disease. There is very little known about the disease and statistics are scarce. This means that diagnosis is often difficult and often sufferers have a number of operations before being correctly diagnosed. It can also mean that support is limited and it can be a time when you feel alone and scared of what the future holds.

So I wanted to raise some money, but the question was what could I do? It had to be a challenge, not something that was a pushover but at the same time it had to be something achievable especially as my body had taken such a battering over the last year. Caving is my usual passion but its very tough and demanding physically, a descent and ascent of Titan in the Peak district had to be cancelled due to my appendix bursting last year and would make the perfect challenge but at the moment is just too demanding.....maybe next year!
At the beginning of the year, a week or so before I went in to have my MOAS we walked Pen-Y-Ffan on the Breacon Becons in about a foot of snow and freezing conditions. This was a big change from the caving that me and my friends were used to but we all thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe a walk would be better.....?
I'd seen Snowdon on the T.V on countryfile or something like that where the presenter walked the Watkins path-part of the Snowdon Horseshoe. It looked great. So I started doing some research to find out about the route.

The route itself is about 7 1/2 miles or so long with a couple of options, so not too far in terms of distance. The route starts at a car park and then makes its way up the Pyg Track where there is an option for the fit and brave to split off of the weather is good and do the Crib Goch traverse. Otherwise its straight up the Pyg track. From here you make your way up to Snowdons busy peak before picking up the Watkin path for a bit. Next comes Y-Llewedd and finally the descent back to the car park via the miners track. The walk is very steep though and on the Crib Goch traverse in places its scrambling/climbing before carefully making our way accross the knife edge traverse. It sounded like just the right kind of challenge......the choice was made!

No comments:

Post a Comment