About the Marathon Des Sables

The MdS is a 6 day / 230km endurance race across the Sahara Desert in Morocco, normally taking place at the end of March / beginning of April.

During this time the competitors (myself included!) have to carry all food, cooking equipment, survival equipment, etc over ground ranging from sand dunes to uneven rocky ground in temperatures upto 120°F.

Why I'm running the Marathon des Sables

Anyone who knows me will be aware that I am not the sort of person who runs across the park, let alone the Sahara. Yet, Spring 2006, I will be running 151 miles (243km) in six days across the Sahara in 130+ degree heat with about 10 kilos of provisions (except water) on my back in aid of Mencap - Sponsor me.

I've spent a lifetime as a pampered urban princess and there is no doubt that this event is going to be very very very tough for me and will have to involve a complete turnaround in my ludicrously decadent journalist's lifestyle. Be sure to know your money will be going towards a great cause - as well as my suffering and shocking skin-damage.

Mencap is a charity very close to my heart as my brother, Tom, is mentally handicapped, and I have spent a lifetime watching authorities and ignorant people overlook and in some cases abuse someone I love. People like Tom can't articulate themselves like others can, and it is the work of charities like Mencap that give him a voice and campaign for his quality of life. Why should his life mean less than a normal persons, because it does, the rights and privileges of those with learning difficulties are not valued as highly as they should be. The government can still get away with ignoring the needs of people like Tom, because he has no vote and can't write pompous letters to the broadsheets when things piss him off. This makes me spit with rage.

We have charities like Mencap to thank for the fact that Tom has a happy, comfortable home within which his personality, love, life and independence can flourish. But there is still a long way to go, I hope that his life, and the life of those with learning difficulties, gets better and are as thought about and respected as much as anyone else's.

Links

• www.mencap.org.uk - A UK charity which campaigns for equal rights for children and adults with a learning disability and offers a variety of services to them and their families
• Sponsor me in aid of Mencap.

• www.saharamarathon.co.uk - More information about the MdS (you could run it too!)
• www.darbaroud.com - The organizers of the MdS
• www.bestofmorocco.co.uk - Tailor-made trips to Morocco (marathon not compulsory)