Employees from Dogsbody Technology and Adapt Digital are dusting off their walking boots for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust and taking part in the Great Strides 65 South – Surrey Hills – A 40-mile team walking challenge through Surrey countryside taking in such delights as the North Downs Way, Greensand Way, Devil’s Punchbowl and St Martha’s Hill. We need to complete the route within 17 hours.

If your feeling generous or feel like supporting our inevitable pain (it’s more than a marathon 😉 but walking….) then please do sponsor us. Dogsbody Technology have already matched their employees donations up to a maximum of £500 – meaning £500 has become £1000 🙂

The 8 Techy Trekkers shun natural daylight preferring the warming glow of computer screens. Needless to say… We aren’t sure if we can do this either!

We have had 4 months to train for walking 40 miles in one day – Saturday 10th June 2017.  10,000 steps would be almost 5 miles for the average adult….we need to do 8 times that!!!

The 40 Mile Route

Why are we doing this? To support and raise fund for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust – an organisation who believe that the day when people with CF can live a life unlimited by their condition is within our reach.

6 of the 8 ‘Techy Trekkers’

What is CF?

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a life-limiting inherited generic condition caused by a faulty gene that controls the movement of salt and water in and out of cells. It affects more than 10,800 people in the UK. You are born with cystic fibrosis and cannot catch it later in life, but more than 2.5 million people in the UK carry the faulty gene, around one in 25 of us – most without knowing.

To have CF, you need to have inherited two faulty copies of the gene (one from each parent), and as there are many different gene mutations that cause cystic fibrosis, each person with the condition can have very different symptoms depending on the two genes they carry. While people with CF often look healthy on the outside, each individual is battling their own range of symptoms on a daily basis – this is why it is often called one of the invisible diseases.

There is currently no cure for cystic fibrosis but many treatments are available to manage it, including physiotherapy, exercise, medication and nutrition.

Each week five babies are born with cystic fibrosis, and two people die.

So please sponsor us and help us make a difference for this great cause.

Each year we make a donation to charities instead of sending Christmas cards.

This year we are very happy to announce donations to the following charities…

Launchpad Reading – A charity that helps some of Reading’s most vulnerable and disadvantaged people to turn their lives around and fulfil their potential. Launchpad began as a soup kitchen in 1979 and were known as Reading Single Homeless Project until 2011. Today, they’re called Launchpad Reading. Based in bright premises in central Reading, they provide accommodation, support and education to people in the town who need help.

Sailors Society – An international Christian charity working in ports across the world. Their chaplains help seafarers and their families from all faiths and none with welfare and practical support. They visit ships in ports and talk with seafarers away from home for up to a year at a time; they help them get in touch with much missed loved ones and access medical treatment; they liaise with frightened families when seafarers are kidnapped by terrorists or imprisoned, mostly through no fault of their own; and they build homes and schools and provide grants to bring hope and security to seafaring communities.

OpenStreetMap – A collaborative project to create a free editable map of the world. The creation and growth of OSM has been motivated by restrictions on use or availability of map information across much of the world, and the advent of inexpensive portable satellite navigation devices. OSM is considered a prominent example of volunteered geographic information.

We hope you all have a great winter and see you in the new year.

Feature image by Courtney licensed CC BY-SA 2.0.