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Terry's Challenge

Long time gearsandtears supporter & friend Terry Byrne will be undertaking a series of runs to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Yeovil Town Road Running Club and has kindly offered to link his efforts to challenge639. His challenge will see him cover 333km over the course of a month. I will post further details of his challenge & updates here.Terry is one of several friends of gearsandtears who have promised to help raise awareness of muscular dystrophy & the plight of Alfie & Archie through Challenge639. I am truly grateful.

3 Comment(s)

Hi All, thanks for the intro Ian, I am looking forward to the challenge, which for me is considerable. I was inspired by Ian's 12 days of Christmas which I was lucky enough to join him on for a couple of jaunts around the Devils Punch Bowl. I will be finishing
on 29th April with a 23k run, I hope as many as possible will join me that day as I 'crawl' around a combined final two legs. Details of the challenge will follow. For Alfie and Archie!

Terry Byrne / 31-Jan-2012 08:52 AM

Look forward to reading all about your challenge Terry and your progress. Dependant where your final 23k is, might come and join you as you were very kind to me on that Devils Punchbowl run, keeping me company at the back as I bought up the rear so it
would be a pleasure to support you on your quest.

Michelle Ashwell / 08-Feb-2012 11:45 PM

The following was written by Terry & gives further details of his challenge & the motivations behind it (I apologise for the loss of formatting that has resulted from me copying this across).. Hi All, I know this is long, but I hope you find the time to
have a read and contemplate... As you may know I am a very keen to raise awareness of a terrible condition, known as Duchene Muscular Dystrophy. A very good friend of mine, Ian, has been completing challenges and raising funds for sometime under the title
of Challenge 639, his friend Tony has two sons, Alfie and Archie who both have the condition. Alfie was diagnosed soon after Archie was born, it only affects boys, and then the devastating news that Archie also tested positive. When I was much younger the
son of our neighbour, Dean, died as a result of the condition. He was under 20 and I had watched him get worse and worse, from starting to walk, then being unable to walk, then is a wheelchair, then being unable to hold his head up and then passing away so
young. That was 35 years ago, and do you know what? So little has changed. When Ian told me about Alfie and Archie it hit me harder that I could have imagined, I could not get my head round how Tony and his wife could watch their sons being hit by this illness
over years with so little hope. Archie is now in calipers at night, his condition is progressing faster than expected, this is why I ran the Stickler for the past two years. We have the choice of using our bodies for activities, can you imagine not having
that choice? I now want to do something to help raise awareness of this condition myself,  The idea Ian and I have come up with is as follows, this will also tie in with the 30th anniversary of my running club. Over the 30 days of April I will take the name
YEOVIL TOWN ROAD RUNNING CLUB, 25 letters and, including the start and end, 5 gaps. a total of 30. Starting on the Sunday 1st April, and ending on Sunday 29th April I will run the number of kilometres for that letter of the Alphabet So on Sunday 1st April
I will run 25k (Y Letter 25 in alphabet), on 2nd 5k for E, then 15k for O etc.. I will combine the 21k and 2k at the end to finish with 23k on Sunday 29th April (I hope). This leaves me 1 day spare if I need an extra rest day somewhere. I will also combine
the A and D in ROAD into one day. This is a total of 333k or 207 miles. I hope others will join me for some of the legs when I am in your neck of the woods, there will be a whole group on Sunday 29th when I do the last 23k in Yeovil! As I will be working all
month, I will be fitting the runs around my work. I have started a blog and record my progress. The whole purpose will to raise awareness of DMD, with the hope more awareness will lead to more interest which in some very small way may increase the pressure
to find a way to control, then cure and then prevent this condition.  Ian has completed some amazing challenges, this is a smaller version, but every additional person aware of DMD makes it worthwhile. Please follow my blog, join in some legs, it will not
be fast!! All details of each days runs will be on the blog. Be aware, find a cure, give Alfie and Archie some hope, a life without hope is no hope. As I say, this is about awareness, but if you feel moved when reading about the boys you can donate via the
web site. My blog is on http://challenge333.blogspot.com/2012/02/   Please become a follower to show awareness and support. All meeting points for runs will be on the blog, please join me for the ones near you, you might be carrying me on some of the later
ones. They will not be fast!!! Thanks for reading and be aware of DMD Best Regards Terry

Ian / 29-Feb-2012 02:48 PM

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