Six Foot Track- 88.6km walk over 2 days

Arthritis facts:
Arthritis is a condition that causes pain and inflammation in a joint. Nearly one in five Australians - that's 3.85 million people – have arthritis.

Rheumatoid and osteoarthritis are two different conditions which fall under the Arthritis umbrella. Rheumatoid arthritis occurs when the body's immune system targets affected joints, which leads to pain and swelling. The outer covering (synovium) of the joint is the first place affected. This can then spread across the joint, leading to further swelling and a change in the joint's shape. This may cause the bone and cartilage to break down. People with rheumatoid arthritis can also develop problems with other tissues and organs in their body.
Sadly, there is no cure for Arthritis... YET!

Arthritis Australia receives a small amount of funding from the Government, but it is chronically underfunded.
Improvements to the way people deal with this disease is impeded by a lack of funding and this particular disease is increasing in Australia.

My Story:
Many people know that this cause is a cause which is quite close to home, as my Mother at the young age of only 44 years of age was diagnosed with a Psoriatic Arthritis. Psoriatic Arthritis develops in some people who have the skin condition psoriasis. It causes inflammation and joint pain and problems. Just like psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis is thought to occur as a result of the immune system mistakenly attacking healthy tissue in the body. There is no cure for this disease and currently the damage to the joints can only be slowed down.

My mother’s form of this disease has moved very quickly and has had a huge impact on her and us as a family. It affected my mother’s line of work and job, her income; her abilities to do normal daily tasks such as go for a walk or even go shopping due to the fatigue, pain and stiffness which the disease causes. It has become normality to head to medical appointments once a week and to self-inject an Anti-TNF drug once a week along with all of the medication and pain relief that have to be taken. For a normal person a cold or a cough will be gone within 2 weeks, but for someone with Arthritis and a lowered immune system which is attacking itself, it can take a month to get back to better health, sometimes resulting in more serious health problems.

The impact this has had and how fast it has moved really has shocked me and I am passionate about raising as much money and awareness of the disease and the lack of Governments funding as I possibly can. No one will understand how much it will mean to me even if you donated even just a dollar. It all helps in the care of people who are unfortunate enough to carry this disease and in the research of finding a cure that one day will be found!

The challenge I am going to undertake:
I will be walking along the famous 'Six Foot Track' through the Blue Mountains in NSW, Australia- completing 88.6km over a 2 day period in May 2017 (TBC)!

I will be commencing very early on the Saturday morning completing 44.3km on day 1. I will then be stopping off overnight to recharge and then be completing the other 44.3km on day 2.

The track starts at Katoomba and ends at Jenolan caves. The way it will work is I will walk from Katoomba to the Jenolan Caves on day 1 (44.3km) and then all the way back on day 2 to where I started.

Whether you know me or not, it will be a great challenge as I am not an avid walker and so I will really need to pace myself and keep up a good pace to ensure that I am walking in daylight.

The route is a grade 'Hard', with it being steep in places whilst passing rivers and waterfalls.

I am being ambitious with how much I raise but, some ambition never killed anyone!

Please, please sponsor me- you will never know how much it means to me.

Thank you in advance!

*Date is subject to weather conditions which may affect the track- safety first and all that jazz!