When I heard about the HF Holidays #Walk500 Charity Challenge I just knew I had to get involved. For every mile walked HF Holidays will donate £5 to The British Heart Foundation up to the 500 mile mark.
BHF is a charity close to my heart (excuse the pun) having suffered from SVT or AVNRT as it was later diagnosed in my pregnancy. Palpitations are something that I’ve lived with for as long as I can remember, but nobody ever considered them an issue – that was until the palpitations didn’t correct themselves one balmy evening while I was watching the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games 2012. I wasn’t sure if I should panic, so I called NHS direct, who promptly passed me over to the emergency department! I was admitted to hospital overnight for observation after having a drug called adenosine . I got loads of information over the coming months from the BHF website about the condition and also the catheter ablation operation that I needed and it was a great help, it really put my mind at ease knowing what was happening inside of my body. Especially when I was blue lighted in to hospital 4 more times during my pregnancy! That first time was three years ago exactly, three years ago I was researching this problem I had with my heart and BHF gave me the answers.
So all we have to do is tweet or facebook a picture of us walking – fields, towns, shopping, anywhere – tagging HF Holidays & using #Walk500 and for every mile pledged they donate £5 to BHF. To donate yourself you can go to their Just Giving page or text HFHW50 £3 to 70070. That’s way easier than throwing a bucket of ice over your head, and will feel much better too!! Once you’ve done it you can tag three friends to do it too. You can make it exciting too – why not make it interesting and do it in fancy dress or doing something silly? It’s a great excuse to get the kids out and set them a challenge too.
Jim Forward, Chief Executive at HF Holidays comments:
“The British Heart Foundation is such an inspirational charity and does so much to help the millions of people in the UK that are living with cardiovascular disease. We feel a great synergy with the charity as walking is very good for the heart and regular walking can really help to improve your health and reduce the risk of heart disease* so we wanted to do something to show our support and help raise money for the vital work it does. But more than that, we want the #Walk500 challenge to inspire people to get outside and get walking! As well as being fun and a fantastic way to explore, it’s also a great way to keep active and stay healthy, regardless of age or agility, and it’s great for the heart and soul. We are hoping to walk further than 500 miles but we wanted to set ourselves a challenge to begin with.”
For more information about HF Holidays, please visit www.hfholidays.co.uk or call 0345 470 7558.
To find out more about The British Heart Foundation please visit www.bhf.org.uk
*http://www.nhs.uk/…/gett…/Pages/getting-started-walking.aspx
Here are some photos of our walks to get you started – as you can see there’s a variance of city and country walking. We find ways to make walks exciting, including bear hunts or finding things to look at – simple things like flowers and butterflies or other little creatures in the grass, otherwise we find places to stop off, like playgrounds – and if all else fails, taking the pushchair for really long walks means we can get out further than Oliver’s legs can take us!
Will you be getting out with your little one? What tips do you have for making walks more fun for little people?
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| Oliver taking a look around Welwyn Garden City town centre just after we moved here |
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| Watching the Dinosaurs butt heads at Knebworth House & Gardens |
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| Dinosaurs This Way at Kenbworth |
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| Walking through the historic streets of Lincoln |
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| Investigating steps near the Bishops Old Palace, Lincoln |
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| Checking out the sandpit at a stop at Coram’s Fields in London |
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| Swishy, Swashy in the long wavy grass |
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| At our local park |
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| Investigating some trees |
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| Navigating Nettles off-road |
*This post was written in conjuction with HF Holidays, but all scary heart problems are my own.
Brilliant, I love this! Great cause and I love the idea of making walks more interesting for children by including dinosaurs. It’s a no-brainer really, of course it’s better with dinosaurs!x
Natalie Ray recently posted…It’s unnatural and it must be stopped
There’s a brilliant play area at Knebworth and it was hard to drag him away for a stroll, but with promise of dinosaurs he was almost running! Definitely need to go again!