Charity

Ashley's 10x10 Challenge to Raise £5000

Ok, I know you get sent dozens of charity sponsorship requests from your friends and work colleagues, and all of them fundraising for a worthy cause, and I know you must be fed up of sponsoring people for doing something silly little things, like sponsored walks, or runs when there are perfectly good busses that they can catch! But I hope you will please take a moment to read my message and consider my request worthy of a few of your hard earned pennies.

My cause, like all the others is a worthy one, and more importantly if you're reading this then you probably know me and why, it is a cause that is close to my heart from both a personal level and as you will know a professional level.

OCD-UK is the charity that I set up in 2004, and these days we are described as the leading national charity, independently working with and for people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).  The charity is run purely on the goodwill of our members and supporters, and through fundraising activities like this, we receive no government support financially, even though to an extent the charity provides an advice and support service that arguably should be provided by the NHS.

As most of you know I have suffered with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder since I was a kid, and it has blighted my life without doubt. In many respects I was lucky, because unlike many other people with OCD I did not become upset or depressed and was able to continue with my employment. But, behind the scenes I was going through hours and hours of mental torment daily, and everyday mundane things that you take for granted, like using the toilet were bothersome for me, and would take on average 90 minutes each time, subsequent rituals sometimes lasting up to 2-3 hours on a good day!   

The popular media portray OCD to be something of a quirky illness, a bit of hand-washing or a bit of checking, but can you imagine having to wash your hands over, and over and over again until they felt 'just right', and each time you wash them the less certain you are if they are clean and so you start over, and over again. Not only is it mentally draining, it is physically draining and of course impacts on your skin and quality of life. OCD really is not a quirky illness, it is a very disabling and debilitating illness, so much so that the World Health Organisation have listed OCD amongst the top 10 most debilitating illnesses in terms of loss of income and decreased quality of life.  

OCD comes in many shapes and guises, not all will have issues with contamination or checking, but I did. Imagine if you will that hand washing ritual I described above, and having to do that to your entire body every single time you use the loo, feet, arms, legs, hair, face all having to be meticulously washed and scrubbed to set patterns and set order of which part will be washed first, and any interruption or doubt about having cleaned a specific part of your body meaning the entire ritual of trying to 'feel' clean has to start all over again. That is what OCD is like for me, and why I am passionate about my charity, and helping other people with OCD.

Although I previously said I was lucky with my OCD, and whilst I was in some respects I was in being able to work, that quality of life I just referred to was certainly affected. Throughout my entire 20's I did not have a social life because of my OCD, I did not have a girlfriend because I never went out anywhere to meet anyone. Yes I went to work, but my entire day would be focussed on surviving the day and not having to use the loo at work. My daily routine would exist of something like this, I would wake up, go to work where I would avoid eating too much to avoid needing the loo, then I would go home, eat, use the loo then go through my washing rituals which would usually last until 10/11pm before I finished, time for bed, and then the whole thing is repeated the next day, over and over, day after day. So my quality of life was most certainly impacted, and why part of my job is to support other people with OCD when their uneducated psychiatrist tells them that OCD can not be that serious as they manage to work and therefore can not have any more treatment!

OCD is an illness which can in some cases ruin young people's education, destroy adults careers, ruin relationships and in some cases result in tragic endings, so in those respects I was lucky. Our charity can not save everyone, but if we can save just one more person each year and give them a life free from OCD, give them their life back, then our work must be a cause worthy of consideration for you sponsoring me.

Initially I set myself the target to complete the British 10K and beat my previous times on Sunday 11th July 2010. The British 10K is a fab road race which takes you through the streets of London, a circuit which takes me past Trafalgar Square, St Paul's and along the embankment passing the London Eye on one side of the river, Big Ben and Parliament and around to finish near Whitehall - 6.6 miles of London's heritage. For those that know me and my rather awful diet, and general unwillingness to exercise then you will know that I can not even run 1k, let alone 10k!  I have somehow managed to complete this event before, and both times it took me a pitiful 1 hour 15 min to 1 hour 30 min, (although in my defence for that slower time I had not long before recovered from a broken knee).  However, this year I wanted to try and finish in less than 1 hour 15 min to challenge myself, and to honour my Mum.

As much as I will be running for myself, and for my charity, I will also be running for my Mum, who passed away on May 21st, just 6 weeks ago, 36 hours after being taken into hospital for a bad back! It was a shock to us all, the night of my May OCD support Group when they diagnosed a bleeding artery, one of the symptoms being a bad back, and they told her she was going to die within hours. Being the stubborn thing she is, she lasted 36 hours, and thankfully that allowed me to spend those last 36 hours with her.  Despite knowing she was going to die, she put everybody else first, wanting my Dad to go home and sleep, worried about me being away from my work which she knew was important to me, even told me I could go home if I needed to!  She did not want her grand children to be scared by her Oxygen mask so took it off before they came, did not want her Mum, my 93 year old Gran to be upset so put on a strong brave front for her. Despite all of this courage she was frightened, after everyone but me and my Dad had gone, I suggested she close her eyes and rest, and she simply said she was scared to in case she didn't wake up, I did not have an answer for her I just sat there unable to say a word, but my Dad did, he took her hand and just held it. But despite being scared, she showed such courage and bravery to put on that smiling face for everybody else during that last 24-36 hours.  I want to show the same courage and determination that my Mum showed and complete this 6.6 mile run close to a hour, and as I cross the line I will look skyward to my Mum and thank her for all she did for me.

My mum was also a volunteer for our charity too, for the last 2 years her role was to process the charities mail, and she did it every week, even when it was raining she went out to the post office to mail it on to my office, and never claimed a penny back in postage costs in 2 years either, even though I offered to refund her on many occasions.

Whilst I am scared of completing the 10K, of the pain, of the lack of my ability to breath, of looking silly when my face goes all red, showing that I have no will power or stamina when my legs and body tell me to walk not run, I wanted to do my best to aim for the one hour mark and beat my previous other times. I have also applied to run the 2011 London Marathon, I hope if my application is successful to somehow find that same strength and courage to complete the London Marathon in 2011.

Although I have made much progress with my OCD, it is still a problem for me sometimes, but the way I describe it is that I now control the OCD, rather than it control's me. I don't have a mountain to climb, but I do still have a step steep hill to scale.  Preparing for the 10K and with luck the London Marathon will take the kind of mental courage and determination that I have not always had, but I hope that by completing both events it will give me the strength, courage and determination to put the same effort into challenging my OCD and overcoming it once and for all, that I think will be the best honour and gift I can give to my Mum now.

I finished the 2010 British 10K in a time of 1:17:18, just two minutes and 18 seconds outside my target. Whilst everybody is telling me that is ok, I felt I had let myself down, my sponsors who had helped me double my initial target, and most of all I dunno, call me stubborn, I wanted to beat my previous times for my Mum. Silly I know, she did not care about running, but, well I wanted to do it to show I have the same courage and determination. During the run, as I came onto the final home straight on Whitehall, you can see the finish line in the distance and I did get emotional, but as my legs started to carry me a little faster across the start line I crossed it running, and I did look up and smile and thank my Mum.

I achieved my initial target of completing the 10K, but I feel I still have a score to settle with the British 10K, so look out 2011, I will be beating my target time of 1:15 for the 2011 British 10K, I have already signed up. I need to work harder to do it, and especially if I get my Marathon place, so I have set myself a new challenge, I am calling it the 10x10 challenge!  Between July 2010 and the end of July 2011 I will run 10 x 10K runs, all under 1 hour 30 min, with the target of sub 1 hour 10 min for the 2011 British 10K.  In that time, if I get my place, I will also run the 2011 London Marathon, my target for that is just to finish, anything under 6 hours I will be happy with.  So to summarise, before the end of July 2011 I will enter and complete 10 x 10K runs, yep, that's 100K, 66 miles of running (plus maybe the Marathon)!  Well worthy of bringing in lots of money for our charity, for such a worthy cause. Please support me in sponsorship and cheering me on if I am running near you too! 

You can follow my progress on my blog by clicking here.

I know you get so many requests for sponsorship, but please consider supporting and helping to motivate me to work harder and train harder by sponsoring me which will be donating to OCD-UK, a very worthy cause.

Why I am using Virgin Money Giving?
I have chosen to use Virgin Money Giving (VMG) over Just Giving because VMG do not charge a fee to use their service, and their transaction costs are much lower (about 35p for every £10 donated), which means the charity gets more of your donation, on average about 50p more than Just Giving for every £10 you donate.

But, for convenience, I am also using Just Giving if you prefer to sponsor me through that, then my page ID is: http://www.justgiving.com/ocd

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