Final Total and What The Money Could Do!

Well all the pennies are in and I'm so overwhelmed. I never thought I would raise so much money and the support from everyone has been humbling. It has been an amazing set of experiences and a fantastic way to turn 30.

The grand total including Gift Aid is a whopping...

£4,150!!

To give you an idea of what that could do and the lives that could change I've given a few possible scenarios below.

• Run a support group for children and families once a month for 8 months plus a range of equipment for families to take home!
• With change to spare, enable 8 children to undergo a specialized educational development assessment showing what they are capable of achieving and  begin to unlock the world in which they live!
• Kit out 16 homes with sensory 'trails' enabling the deafblind residents to identify specific rooms, stairs etc, enabling them to live in a safe, secure environment!
• Pay for 83 children to have a vital first assessment! 
• Pay for 166 interactive light tubes to help stimulate deafblind children's remaining sight.
• Pay for 553 deafblind children to experience sailing and feel the wind on their face on their Sense holiday
• Pay for 830 deafblind children to own music bells to stimulate even the tiniest amount of their hearing.

Any one of those scenarios is in it's way life changing and I'm so grateful to everyone that donated. If you want a little reminder that I did my best to earn your generosity below are the 30 charity challenges:

Challenge 1 – Looking after a toddler for 24 hours

Challenge 2 – Bathing in beans

Challenge 3 – Experiencing being deaf-blind through an assault course

Challenge 4 – Swim 30km in 3 weeks

Challenge 5 – eat totally healthily for one month and no alcohol.

Challenge 6 – Attend a life drawing class

Challenge 7 – I’m a teacher get me out of here (holding a tarantula, bobbing for apples in fish oil and eating crazy sour sweets)

Challenge 8 – Run sign language classes for kids and adults

Challenge 9 – Run a sensory walk for a group of hikers

Challenge 10 – Walk from Sheffield to Matlock (22 miles)

Challenge 11 – Make a map of all the houses in the village of Winster for emergency services and deliveries.

Challenge 12 – Choreograph and perform a dog dance

Challenge 13 – Cook dinner for 10 people

Challenge 14 – Learn all about a specialist topic (Airbus A380) and answer 20 quiz questions on it with random observation questions from the evening thrown in.

Challenge 15 – Crew and race a sailboat

Challenge 16 – Help to organise and model in a charity fashion show

Challenge 17 – Design and deliver the picture round in a local pub’s Christmas quiz

Challenge 18 – Make a skirt for someone to wear to a Christmas party

Challenge 19 – Clear out the garage significantly so that you could permanently fit a car in there

Challenge 20 – Send someone a motivational message very day for 30 days after a tough time

Challenge 21 – 24 hours of silence

Challenge 22 – Perform I will Always Love You by Whitney Houston at Karaoke

Challenge 23 – Play the flute at an open music night in a local pub

Challenge 24 – Compete in a pea eating contest using chop sticks

Challenge 25 -  Teach all day dressed as an octopus.

Challenge 26 – Learn to showjump

Challenge 27 – Give an antenatal massage to a pregnant pig

Challenge 28 – No social media for a month

Challenge 29 – Choreograph and perform a ballet dance to the song Breathe by the Prodigy in the bandstand in Matlock Park

Challenge 30 – Publicise the challenges and raise awareness of the charity SENSE and what they do

Thanks all, over and out!

 

Completed Challenge 30# - The Last One!

Ahhh this is a great feeling! The last one. I can't believe it. It has been such an amazing experience and a fantastic way to turn 30. There has been so many highs (and few lows!) but for all it's taken out of me, I've got 10 times as much back. I've had 30 great challenges and formed some new friendships along the way.

I'll update next week with a final total as I'm reliably informed a few more people want to donate. If that's you and you're reading this - www.justgiving.com/30before30sense (just a little hint!)

So onto the last challenge which was to publicize the challenges and the charity SENSE. This has been ongoing throughout and I've really enjoyed chatting with people about the charity and making people aware of the work that they do.

Every challenge has contributed towards this but in addition I have worked hard on this blog, received some press interest and taken part in an afternoon tea to publicize the challenges. I also carried out some of the challenges at the two schools I've worked in during the challenges to publicize the challenges and charity to my students.

The afternoon tea was a huge success, lots of people who had been involved in the challenges came a long and we all ate a lot of yummy cake. My fantastic mother had made a PowerPoint of all the challenges with some videos which was a great talking point. I brought leaflets, posters and balloons to show people and also information on what the charity does and where the money can go. One of my challenges was to produce a map which had been mounted beautifully and I found out the challenge was expanding even further to be lit at night which was a fantastic feeling.

I was lucky to have some short articles in local press at the beginning of the challenges and was even more pleased to have two large articles towards the end. One was in my local paper the Matlock Mercury and the other published on my actual birthday was a double page spread in the Derby Telegraph. This really meant a lot to me as I could reach I wider audience about SENSE and hopefully inspire them to do some challenges of their own.

Last but certainly not least I publicized the challenges through this blog. At first I found it quite hard to write and it can feel like you're talking to no-one. But then I got more and more hits and I began to really enjoy the process of documenting my challenges and taking stock of what I had achieved. The hits went up daily with the more humiliating ones attracting a lot of attention. The winning post was ballet dancing at 189 hits! As this was an unusual thing to do for my 30th and something that has consumed my life for the last year you can imagine my delight when I post the total hits this blog has had.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped to promote the challenges and the charity SENSE. This has been a real team effort and I could not have done it without you!

Completed Challenge 2# - Bathing in Beans

I think the photos and videos will probably speak for themselves here! It. Was. Awful. Bathing in beans is one thing. My parents somewhat stretched this to "roll up, roll up, pour beans on our little girl."

There's the odd tentative ladle, there's the strategic pour down her back and then there's the good old fashioned throw all over her. This is all with the wonderful soundtrack of my little niece wailing "nooo" and crying and she thought people were bullying her beloved aunty.

I was caked in the stuff. Had a real walk of shame back to my parents, bare foot and dripping with beans. You only had to follow the trail to find their house. But it was my last big challenge and a lot of people turned up to support (read laugh at) me.

Thank you so much, we made a whopping £80 between the beans and the peas followed by another £10 when we donated the left overs to some local pigs. It was so lovely to see everyone who has supported me along the way and talk through my challenges. I was super humbled.

It may be a long time before I or my poor little niece can eat beans again! Here is a little snippet of my lovely brother in law finishing it off and a range of photos of people doing their worst. There are tonnes of other pictures of me humiliated doing the rounds.

Completed Challenge 24# - Pea Eating Contest!

When you search for this on google it's such a rare event that my page actually comes up 6th!

I teamed this challenge with an afternoon tea I was having to promote the charity. This meant there was a lot of support and quite a few contestants! People were also more competitive than I imagined. My 3 year old niece decided she wanted to compete with me so I'm using that as an excuse for why I did so badly!

The winner, by a country mile, was Katie who ate a whopping 59 peas in a minute. Clearly a proficient chopstick user - or put in some practice. Aoife and I were pretty lame in comparison and managed less than 20. My mum had thankfully laid on a lot of cake as most people were keen to take the taste away.

It was a really fun challenge and a good way to get the party going! Thanks so much to my sister Tessa for all her organisation and for everyone for taking part.

Completed Challenge 26 - Showjumping!

It's probably worth admitting at that start that I did fall off. Not even in a dramatic way. More off a whoops, I'm falling, I'll just slide off kind of way. But as the saying goes I got back on the horse and jumped again. All be it a little shaky with a few tears.

My friend Kim, who is a fab friend, a trusted drinking partner, and one of the few people I can go on holiday with also turned out to be an amazing teacher. I was so glad to have someone I trusted completely guiding the way and I felt instantly comfortable.

She had made a lot of effort to protect me from injury - at her birthday party last year I cracked a rib roller skating and the guilt lives on. Despite that being entirely my fault! She was also very patient and Rupert the horse was very forgiving of my rookie skills.

It was a full workout for Kim who had to run me round the jumps to train me and to spur on the slightly lazy Rupert. I was doing pretty well and she let me go it alone, I lost my confidence a bit and slid off but I was so proud of myself. No broken bones, not even a bruise!

This was the only potentially really dangerous challenge I really did and it felt an amazing thing to achieve. It's given me the confidence to go riding again with Kim in the summer.

Huge thanks to Kim, everyone at the stables and especially Lucy for the loan of a wonderful horse, her support on the day and being so sympathetic when I made a fool of myself! Please see below for videos of Kim's great training and the not so epic fall.

Remember you can support this or any other challenge by donating at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Completed Challenge 19# - Watch The Mirrors!

Well, watch the mirrors indeed. This was very nearly the one challenge I didn't manage! Even with a thourough clean up of the garage it was an incredibly tight squeeze.

I began the mammoth task of clearing out old stuff in February. I gritted my teeth and started to be ruthless. I had kept so much old school stuff in the belief that I would 'absolutely use it someday'. But now I have the job I've always wanted and I whittled down to 2 boxes that I could take with me to my new office.

It was fun to begin with. Going through old stuff and thinking how far I'd come. Then it was boring. Then it was hell. I piled my car up and heading for the tip only to be told by the guy peering at the headings on my paper that they don't take "trade waste!". It's paper! "You're a teacher - it's trade waste." Turns out I'm not charming enough so had to head off.

Following this the challenge has whittled away at me. There was tyres there but I didn't want to change them over til the weather was better, there was a chest freezer that a friends having but I hadn't sorted out delivering. So at the weekend I was ruthless again, made a plan and prayed that my measurements were right and that the freezer would fit in our car (the bigger car!).

With all this sorted tonight, I was pretty pleased with myself. Until it came the time to actually drive it in. With a lot of huffing and 'stop', 'turn a bit', 'no less', 'no right' from my husband it fit. Just.

Now we're wondering what to do with all the empty space in our garage and I have itchy fingers for some more storage boxes...

Completed Challenge 22# - Karaoke

This one comes with a warning: IT IS AWFUL! I think people genuinely assumed I was being modest. Everyone can sing a little bit right? I can't. Not even a teensy bit. The copious amounts of wine helped the confidence but not the pitch. I also outraged my friends by admitting I'd never seen The Bodyguard, did not sing it in the shower and did not know the words.

If you doubt any of what I'm saying watch the clips. If you value your ear drums or your sanity don't! It is split into 3 as such a long song.

Please remember you can make this humiliation worth my while by donating at www.justgiving.com/30beforesense

Thanks to Kate, Sarah and Fran for their wonderful, candle-lit, backing dancing!

Completed Challenge 29# - Ballet

A great feeling to have the penultimate really embarrassing one done! I was less scared about this than the flute as I figured a little improvisation would go a long way. However there were some moves Hannah had specified so I was busy you-tubing those to make sure I incorporated them in some way.

Hannah had kindly (read cruelly!) chosen a very contemporary and long song. This did at least mean I could choreograph a chorus to give something to link my general flaying about together. My next door neighbours kindly donated and came a long and although they were very kind they did mention that there was a lot of twirling my hands, pointing my toes and hoping for the best. They were right!

Another dimension was the requirement to dress like a ballerina. I found myself pulling a tutu over my head as the 30 year old figure did not quite lend itself to such slender dress.

Apart from a few curious kids, the audience was somewhat limited which I was grateful for. The sides of the bandstand also afforded me a degree of secrecy! But it's not something I will be volunteering to do again and I'll certainly be keeping my head down in the supermarkets and pubs for the next few weeks.

Thanks to Hannah, Sophie, Maria and Laurie for their support and encouragement. I especially enjoyed listening back to their narration while filming!

Ballet attire and happy challenger

Now for the video! Please keep your laughter to yourself! I've had to split the video into 2 as it's too large. An added bonus of these challenges is some new IT skills.

Completed challenge 23# - play us a tune!

Off all the challenges this has been one of the hardest. Unlike the others, where although they were often things I didn't particularly want to do, this was something I didn't want to do AGAIN.

I had stopped playing the flute as a child as I hated to play in public or perform really in anyway. So in preparing for this challenge all those feelings came back with the added difficult that I couldn't play. I had naively assumed it would be like riding a bike; but I didn't remember any of the finger placements or even how to play music.

On the Monday before the challenge I was really frustrated and worried that this might be the first challenge I was unsuccessful at. I was whinging away to my sister about not wanting to do it. Then at work one of my special needs children showed me their holiday scrapbook where they had cut out my picture from the paper. It gave me the perspective and push I needed to remember what I was really doing this for.

I practiced every night til I had cramp in my fingers and by the performance felt almost ready. I had highlighted sheets of the finger placements, written all letters underneath all my notes. It turned out I needn't have worried as the other musicians and audience at the pub were so friendly and accommodating that they put me very much at ease.

I don't think I'll be rushing off to become a musician any time soon, but a hige thank you to Geoff and all at The Flying Childer's who supported me. This time I truly have done something I didn't think I would be able to do.

Please see below my many cheat sheets, and a video of the very short performance.

Completed Challenge 25# - A day in the life of an octopus!

Just out of a long hot bath as it turns out wearing a heavy octopus head all day makes you pretty achy!! But despite the crick in my neck and the flush of embarassment in my cheeks it was totally worth it for the £104.54 that was raised!

The worst part of the day was sitting in briefing in front of all my colleagues who I pray normally take me seriously. This was swiftly followed by having to walk past kid after kid who did a double take or just stood in front of me laughing. I had also managed to time this day with my dog coming in for animal care. This went absolutely fine but was certainly not my proudest moment cleaning dog muck up dressed as an octopus! It did lead some Year 11 students to come running out and emptying all their change out to me saying they felt it was a new low for me.

There were some great moments when a student watched my dog cuddling up to me and said "ooh she must like seafood" and when my year 7's carried on working, and whinging about working, as if nothing else was happening.

Being made to carry on wearing it for a drink in the pub after work was not what I bargained for but did lead to another couple of quid from the punters - all in a day's work.

Thanks to the challengers and costume makers and everyone that donating!!

Completed Challenge 28# - No Social Media!

Success! I made it through the month. No crisis happened. No really horrid photos or posts. But truth be told I did miss it.

It didn't help that Facebook emailed me daily to say I had notifications. They would also tell me I had friend requests and messages. I would mull over what these could be and whether people would think me rude for not responding. I had two major events during the month and I was jealous not to be involved in the fun anecdotal statuses afterwards or prolong the fun flicking through the photos.

I missed the odd invitation to things and a few funny stories. But it's important to remember I didn't miss any major life events and it didn't reduce my contact with my best friends. If anything I tried to contact them more as I couldn't just 'spy' on their lives through Facebook.

One friend sent me a 4 page letter catching me up on everything that was going on with them which was really sweet. I wrote a lengthy letter back and we realised we had shared far more than we ever would have done on Facebook. I was reminded that it simply does not replace the connection we have with people in our real lives.

So thank you to the challengers, it was a good thing for me to do. Thank you to those who donated. Thank you to  everyone that still contacted me. And thank you to everyone who welcomed me back to the social media world today!!

Please remember you can donate to support this or any other challenge at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Challenge 30# - The last one!!

Ah the last one. If only I was writing this having completed all the others but the truth is I've still got a long way to go.

Having said that, this is probably the most important one and really one I've been working towards all along. It comes from the team at SENSE asking me to raise awareness of the charity and what they do.

It's absolutely phenomenal to raise lots of money but just as important to me that the charity reaches a wider audience. This may mean more money in the long run; but it may also mean someone who really needs help might see there is something out there for them.

So as an ongoing challenge I'm doing what I can to publicize my experiences and the work that SENSE does. That's why I'm writing this blog and posting what I can on social media. Obviously not during my challenge ban! I'll also be continuing to get information in local media and if I can get any interest from women's magazines I will be doing this as well.

In addition to this I'll be hosting (with some generous help from my family) an afternoon tea on the 17th of May in my home village. I'll be completing a few challenges, telling people about the experiences I've had and a bit about what impact the money can have.

Please take a moment to click on the link below and find out more about the fantastic work that SENSE does day in day out. The people they help are facing far more than 30 challenges on a daily basis and I am in absolute awe of them.

http://www.sense.org.uk/content/how-we-help

I am particularly interested in the work that SENSE does for children and young people. There is a great video explaining this work at:  http://www.sense.org.uk/content/services-children-and-young-people

Challenge 29# - Ballet!

I can dance. Sort of. Ok, it's one of those things I did many moons ago but it's like riding a bike right? So when my friend Hannah said I had to perform a 3 minute piece of ballet there was a moment when I thought "yeah I can do that".

Then she said:

That I had to include a pirouette and pas de chat...

That it had to be in a public place...

That it had to be to the song Breathe by the Prodigy...

At that point I realised that the picture below was more of an apt view of my ability to dance.

So date, time, location all to be confirmed. Humiliation guaranteed. If you can possibly support this challenge please donate at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Challenge 28# - No Social Media!

I would love to pretend that I'll find this easy. That it won't bother me that I can't go on Facebook or Instagram for a month. But it will bother me. I will really struggle.

However it's a challenge I'm happy with as it's absolutely something I need to do. Social Media has it's uses; for a start the success of this blog is down to sharing challenges and pleas for donations on Facebook. I have had 159 page views in the last 24 hours and this really contributes to raising awareness of Sense and what I'm doing. But I am also addicted to them. Since getting Facebook and Instagram on my phone I click on them continually. I don't need to; nothing will have happened, I won't have missed anything. But it's a compulsion, something I do almost subconsciously.

So from the 1st of March I'll be deleting the apps, stopping myself from logging in on the computer and generally not being apart of the online social world until April arrives. I hope I'll fill my time with better things. I also hope no-one puts hideous photos or comments about me that I don't know about!Having a hen do, my husband's 30th birthday party and potentially the karaoke challenge during March fills me with dread so many potential unknown photos and videos.

I'm grateful that the friends who have nominated this I see in my real life. Hopefully I'll see and talk to many more people in real life for the month of March. Hopefully when I come back to it I'll use it for the right reasons and keep cutting back on just how many times I click on those apps.

Remember you can support this or any other challenge by donating at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Completed Challenge 12# - Show me your moves!

Well it's safe to say Ashley and Pudsey have nothing to worry about. But if you have ever met my dog and how generally lazy she is please be slightly impressed by this!!

There is a costume change (sort of!), there are a few tricks and there is music. It's also twice the length of the original challenge!

As promised there is a video if you can concentrate on the dancing rather than the laughing in the background! Please remember you can donate to support this or any other challenge at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Completed Challenge 27# - Pig Massage!

So I've done it! Something I never imagined myself doing and will probably never do again. I massaged the fantastically behaved, much bigger than I expected, Rachel the pig.

It was a really interesting experience where the anticipation was far worse than the event. I was nervous as I really did not know what to expect and several people wound me up talking about gangsters feeding people to pigs. My husband Colm came along with me to take pictures and generally laugh at me in my overalls, up to my elbows in oil.

Thankfully Jo and Veronica certainly don't come across as gangsters and made Colm and I very welcome and me feel very comfortable with the whole experience. Rachel's hair was incredibly coarse and I did worry she was going to trample on my feet at times but otherwise she stood beautifully and just allowed me to massage the oil in. It is also a strange experience talking and reassuring a pig - not least because we share the same name!

The little pig, Tessa, kept out of our way greedily munching her food which in no way resembles her name sake (my sister!). I should also point out that the names were absolutely a coincidence and in no way linked to the Newton sisters.

So purely for your entertainment here's some pictures and a short video of Rachel and Rachel!

If you enjoy the video or want to support any other challenge please do donate at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense.

Challenge 27# - Pig Massage!

Here's a sentence I never thought I'd hear: "I challenge you to massage our pregnant pig". I'm not the most tactile person. I cannot even imagine what a pig feels like!

So this Saturday, I'll be donning my wellies, hopefully some gloves and a large amount of oil.

I received this challenge from the lovely Jo and Veronica today:

"We have a Berkshire sow (called Rachel) who is due to have her litter of piglets around mid March, and like all pregnant ladies a massage is something she really enjoys.    So ..... how about Rachel giving Rachel an antenatal massage?    All that would be involved is rubbing pig oil (basically moisturiser) into her coat and if you're lucky she'll subside onto her side with a grunt of ecstasy so you can rub her tummy.   She's a very friendly, placid and well-mannered pig in our barn so we'd be there with you and let her and you get to know each other before you get started."

Let's hope the pig Rachel is as placid as she sounds and I promise photo evidence of this unique experience!! I'm also going to try and forget the coincidence that the pigs are named Rachel and Tessa (mine and my sister's names!)

Please, please donate if you can. This is certainly out of my comfort zone! www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Rachel & Tess snoozing!

 

Challenge 26# - Showjumping!

So I used to ride. 15/20 years ago. I've been since -once on our honeymoon. Mainly to say I'd been horseriding in Barbados! When I say riding, the horse took me. We ambled very slowly down a lovely path to the beach. I did nothing. The horse did all the work. Others tried trotting. Some went for a canter on the beach. I posed for a photo. So hopefully this will be like riding a bike. A bike with a few tricks thrown in!

The challenge is to 'become an equestrian'. One of my best friends Kim is going to give me a riding lesson and then I have to complete 6 jumps fully kitted out in show jumping gear on Saturday 26th April. She's apparently chosen Lucy's lovely horse and will hopefully guide me every step of the way. The kind of challenge where it pays to have a lot of faith in your friends and hope the horse will do it all for me!

Thanks to Lime Lane Stables for their support and the use of the facilities. I hope I don't add to your accident book in any way!

Remember you can support this or any other challenge through donating at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Might have to be kitted out a bit better this time!

Completed Challenge #21 - Silence!

I was struggling for when to do this challenge as I couldn’t do it during any work time. I decided to start it when I was suffering with a bad throat anyway – I thought this might make it easier but it didn’t!

The first thing I discovered was that my husband would take any opportunity to make wise cracks or get me to agree to things. “Stay silent if you think we should get a bigger TV.” “Stay silent if we can spend your tax rebate on the holiday”. “Stay silent if you don’t want any tea…”  You get the picture!

This was rapidly replaced by me discovering how hard it is not talking to the dog! I had not realised just how much I chat away at her unthinking, that all my instructions to her are verbal or that she would become utterly confused by my lack of sound. 

As I didn’t have any big weekend plans due to feeling poorly I thought it best to include digital communication in my silence. I didn’t want anyone thinking I hadn’t challenged myself. It pains me to say, this was just as hard as not speaking. So many of my friends and family are dotted around the world I felt bad for not replying or desperate to comment on something funny or cute on Facebook. This is such a sign of the times that I would have found silence more bearable if I could text and message and comment and like and whatsapp and Instagram. When it got to an hour to go and my husband was still out at the footy those were the things I thought I’d do first and that was a real eye opener for me.

The biggest problem with 24 hours of silence? That I’m northern and live in the countryside. I thought a dog walk would be a nice break. No possibility that I was agreeing to spending lots of money on TV’s; the dog knows the way so I wouldn’t have to instruct her. So the issue? If you meet on a dog walk it is social suicide to not talk to people. I chose to go round the quarry as it’s really windy and I thought it was highly unlikely anyone else would venture up there. 

Encounter No. 1: An elderly couple appeared from a small path in the bushes. I smiled, they said hello. I smiled again. They looked at one another confused. “It’s lovely weather” they said. I nodded. But we’re northern, a nod is not enough. “Have you walked this way before?” they tried and looked at me encouragingly. I gestured that I couldn’t use my voice and at the same moment must have turned so they saw my hearing aid. “Oh the poor dear”. I had inadvertently given the impression I was deaf and dumb. I smiled and continued. But the dog did not. She decided to follow these lovely talking people who would give her a big fuss. “No little doggy you’ve got an important job to do” they said. While I ashamedly pulled my dog in her ‘happens to be high-vis’ coat along with me.

Not following my gestures so I have to go back through the mud for her!

Encounter No. 2: We rounded the top of the quarry and on a very small path bumped into a solitary walker. “What a day!” she exclaimed. I smiled. “It’s going to get more blustery and wet though”. I nodded. “Oh my goodness is that a King Charles? I had one of those but it wasn’t well behaved like yours, it would run off”. I tried for a bigger smile and a nod together. She looked confused, then brightened “ah you don’t speak English, I should have known with the darker skin, don’t worry my dear bye bye”. 

Encounter No 3: We were nearly home and dry. So far I had survived both as each had found their own reason for my silence. We walked quickly down the steep hill to home. A farmer came around the corner – “harder going up than down duck, lucky you”. I smiled. I fained being out of breath to explain my silence. He laughed “can’t be a local if you out of breath going down!”

Just as we got to the door we passed the postman, “alrate” he said but kept walking. I sat inside wondering if I had performed the cardinal sin of annoying the postman who it’s important to keep on side. I wrote a note in case a neighbour popped round, to say I was doing a sponsored silence – I couldn’t think of breaking the last of the countryside etiquettes.

So although a ‘solitary’ dog walk was probably the toughest part of the challenge; it was the bit that meant the most to me. Because the truth is, there people in this country who could go days of silence. Maybe they live alone and no-one talks to their neighbours. Maybe they travel on the tube where everyone keeps their head down. But I live somewhere where no-one assumed I was being rude or I didn’t want to talk to them. Only a physical impairment or a language barrier could have been the possible reason I didn’t stop and chat. And I love that.

So thank you to Lesley for the challenge, thank you to the dog walkers and the northerners and the countryside folk who wouldn’t dream of letting someone have 24 hours stuck in silence.

Remember to support this or set your own challenge donate at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Where I'm lucky enough to live