We remain indebted to everyone who chooses to do something incredible to help raise funds and awareness for Hearts + Balls – it’s the fuel that keeps our engine running.
This season we’ve seen many businesses and individuals undertake challenges or choose us as their charity partner. We’re humbled to be included in this way and are more than happy to chat to anyone who might be thinking of making us their charity of choice.
Our very own Sandra Taylor – Hearts + Balls Board Member and half of the legendary Team Taylor – is currently gearing up for the Kiltwalk where she’ll be stepping out to fundraise for our charity on 26 April. We caught up with her recently in training.
“I screenshot my Fitbit when I go out and screenshot it again when I come back in and that tells me how many steps I’m doing, then I have a Strava to measure the distance plus another walking app,” she explains, “but I always find myself saying, ‘Oh is that the best I can do!’
“There’s a line on my JustGiving page which says I’ll be doing a ‘gentle stroll’ but I might delete that bit because it doesn’t feel like a gentle stroll right now! But you just have to keep going and I’ll get there. I do notice people’s gardens on my routes and think ‘why doesn’t my lawn look like that?’ or ‘I need to cut my grass’ which is spurring me on too!”
Sandra’s motivation to rise to this challenge lies squarely with the memory of her late husband, to mark what would have been his 70th birthday in July.
“Jim always liked to do daft sporting challenges so I thought this walk was the least I could do,” she says.
“He always said if he got to 21 years in a wheelchair he would have a party. He did, and we raised money for the spinal injuries’ unit. They then invited us to an event with Princess Anne, who was introduced to Jim and told why he’d raised the money. She couldn’t believe her ears that he’d celebrated that landmark with a party, but she congratulated him!
“Then at 25 years he had another party; at 30 years he pushed a ton of granite for a mile on ice, up and down Barrhead Curling Rink – he’d worked out the weight of the curling stones and how many lengths he had to do to make up the distance. Then he was going to do the London Marathon on his hand bike. I stupidly said, ‘you can’t do that’ and that was red rag to a bull – he was doing it! But that was in 2019 and it never came to pass.
“That’s really why I’m taking on this challenge however tough it seems. Jim would just tell me to keep going, saying ‘you can do it’ and that’s keeping me focused.”
To find out more about the event and help Sandra’s fundraising, click through to her JustGiving page here:
