Hi there,
Thanks for taking the time to visit our blog. On the 13th of October, Lauren and myself, Alan, will be walking the length of New Zealand for The Irish Heart Foundation.
Let me tell you about our trek, actually, first of all, as we’re doing this for charity, I need to tell you that EVERY cent of ALL the donations (apart from a small administration fee for Mycharity.ie) go straight to The Irish Heart Foundation. We’re taking care of everything that is going to cost us money, flights, food, equipment, everything.
Heading off on the 13th of October we plan to complete the Te Araroa trail over five months. Meaning ‘The Long Pathway’ Te Araroa certainly lives up to its name at over 3000km long. Reaching an altitude of 2,500m, we’ll be carrying everything we need to survive, living out of our backpacks everyday until the 26th of March 2015. The trail itself is highly varied often bringing you over several different types of terrain in one day. We’ll get to stay in hostels and trail cabins from time to time but mostly we’ll be sleeping in a tent and eating dehydrated food.
The Irish Heart Foundation works to educate people on how to avoid Cardiovascular Disease, and how to manage it day to day and in an emergency. Approximately 10,000 die each year as a result of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). That makes me pretty sure that you will, or do, know someone seriously affected by CVD. With those numbers the fact that IHF is 92% publicly funded seems ridiculous. Their work saves the taxpayer millions, and it could save the life of someone you care for.
We chose the Irish Heart Foundation as we both have family history of CVD and I myself have had open heart surgery. My surgery was in June 2010. According to my cardiologist if I hadn’t have had my mitral valve repair I would have died by now. Lauren’s uncle passed away very suddenly from a heart attack, he was only 44. My own uncle was very, very, lucky. He had twelve cardiac arrests in one night. If he hadn’t been aware of the symptoms, the paramedics may not have had the chance to do the amazing work they did that night.
I’ve recovered well from my surgery thanks to the care I received in The Mater, St. Vincents and also in The Louth Hospital after some complications, not to mention the help and support from my friends and family.
We have set up a donation page for the Irish Heart Foundation:
http://www.mycharity.ie/event/trek3000/
Thanks again for visiting and many more thanks for your support in advance.
Alan & Lauren
Trek3000 