Remembering Not To Forget

From 1st January to 31st December 2017 we took on a Round the World challenge. We aimed to cover the distance of the equator (24,902 miles or 40,076 km) through ‘self- powered travel’; primarily cycling, running and swimming.

We smashed this target, achieving a distance equivalent to TWO laps of the equator and raised an incredible total of over £27,000!  Thank you to everyone who contributed to this. 

We designed this challenge so that there would be lots of easy options for our supporters to get involved by contributing distances, raising funds and awareness about dementia at the same time. In addition, research shows that regular exercise can reduce the risk of dementia so by encouraging people to be more active we hoped to help people reduce their risk of developing dementia in later life.

You can see below some of the activities our fantastic supporters came up with. 

Round the World activities

• Alastair Douglas and Michelle Beazley were convinced to join co-founder Ali in the London Revolution cycling event in May, with Alastair joining for day 1 (100 miles) and Michelle for day 2 (85 miles). 
• Trustees organised a guided  Four Palaces Walk led by the brilliant Warr’s Walks in June.

• Pamela & Michael Wright decided to walk at least 150 miles in June, but extended the challenge and managed a whopping total of 542 miles in June and July.

• One marathon in a year is enough for most people but supporter (and now trustee) Georgina McMasters took on the truly awe-inspiring challenge of 10 marathons in 10 different countries in 2018: Barcelona, Paris, Geneva, Tenby, Reykjavik, Dingle, Loch Ness, Amsterdam, Chelmsford and Las Vegas. 

• Co-founders Ali and Laura, together with Laura’s husband Jon, took on the Lands End to John O’Groats bike ride in July and August. Read more about their adventures and mishaps here. 

• Trustees Kate Simpson and Georgina McMasters swam an incredible 14km in August from Henley to Marlowe, read more about their swim.

• Kate Little chose to raise funds for us when she ran the Birmingham half marathon in October 2018, having been inspired by trustee Helen Wright’s blog post.

• Sackers law firm set their own challenge for staff – travelling the scenic route from London to Berlin for 7 weeks from mid-September! They started their adventure by travelling from London to Paris in 24 hours on stationary bikes in their offices, and then teams within the firm set their own challenges and collected kilometres weekly.

• Laura and Ali were also very happy to attend a wine tasting event organised by Sackers, and inspired by the London to Berlin challenge, travelling via the vineyards of Europe! We started with a lovely glass of English fizz, hopped across the channel taking in the Loire, Alsace and then took a southerly detour through France and Italy before arriving at our destination with an unusual German wine.

Our supporters also contributed distances from their daily activities through our Strava group: 

Remembering Not to Forget Strava Group