Huge congratulations to our supporter Josh Briggs on completing not one, not two, but three serious challenges over four days to help raise awareness of meningitis and funds towards our ongoing work.<\/p>\n
Josh, aged 34, from Harrogate, took on a half marathon, a turf games and the Three Peaks Challenge earlier this summer having experienced his six-week-old daughter being diagnosed with meningitis.<\/p>\n
He told us: \u201cI hate running. Anything longer than a football pitch is too far. I\u2019ve never run further than 10km, so a half marathon felt completely unnecessary.<\/p>\n
Dedicated and hardworking<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was followed by a turf games cross fit challenge (a high-intensity fitness programme that combines weightlifting, gymnastics and cardiovascular endurance). Anyone who\u2019s done cross fit knows you have to be extremely dedicated and hardworking to be absolutely bang average \u2014 which is exactly what I was aiming for.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then to finish it off tI took on the national Three Peaks Challenge inside 24 hours. Because once I\u2019m tired, sore and broken why not climb the three biggest, most beautiful mountains in the UK, in the dark?\u201d<\/p>\n
But Josh conquered all his challenges and in the process raised a massive \u00a33,780 for our ongoing work, smashing both his initial and revised fundraising targets.<\/p>\n
Overwhelmed with the support, love and donations<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so happy to have completed it and been overwhelmed with the support, love and donations from everybody,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s safe to say I was struggling from beginning to end on the event. From 29 degrees on the half marathon, to snow and torrential rain on the mountains!\u201d<\/p>\n
Josh admitted though that it felt good to give back to a cause so close to his heart. And raising awareness felt useful and important too.<\/p>\n
Josh undertook the challenge for his and partner Lucy\u2019s daughter Camilla, who at just six weeks old showed them what real strength looks like.<\/p>\n
Lives flipped on their head<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the beginning of last year, our lives were flipped on their head,\u201d he told us.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur youngest girl was just six weeks old when she fell ill. At first, it seemed like one of those things you expect with a newborn \u2013 maybe a bug, maybe a virus. We did what so many parents do: kept an eye on her, tried not to panic, tried not to be that over-worried parent.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter a couple of days, something didn\u2019t feel right, so we took her to hospital. What followed still feels blurry, but everything went from 0 to 100 crazily fast.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the next two and a half weeks, Lucy and I lived through the most difficult, scary and powerless period of our lives, trying to stay strong while our tiny little girl fought for hers. There are no words that really do justice to how helpless that feels as a parent.<\/p>\n
Never stop feeling miraculous<\/p>\n
\u201cThankfully \u2013 and this will never stop feeling miraculous \u2013 she came out the other side like an absolute trooper. We don\u2019t yet know the full extent of the impact the bacterial meningitis may have on her long term, but right now she is well, and we\u2019re optimistic of a full recovery.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that one day she\u2019ll laugh at just how much this experience shaped her mum and dad, while she stands there with no memory or evidence it ever happened!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Huge congratulations to our supporter Josh Briggs on completing not one, not two, but three serious challenges over…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[134,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-597993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}