Anyone who’s been reading this over the last 3 or 4 years (don’t let the limited archives fool you!) will know that my recent Highland exploits are not the first time I’ve ventured out on a weekend, determined to work up a sweat and get muddy and knackered by taking part in an event with a very dubious sounding name. There’s been multiple Tough Guys, a couple of Hellrunners, a Grim challenge, a Mountain Marathon that went well and one that went not so well and various other little races. People like Lyle and Pix have occasionally had recourse to call me a nutter or a loon for doing these things and I admit freely that it’s a character flaw of mine: a selfish desire to prove myself both physically and mentally by pushing myself to do these events.

In four weeks time, I’m going to be doing something else but this time the reasons for doing it are not so selfish. I’m taking part in Trailwalker 2007, an event organised with the goal of raising money for the Ghurka Welfare Trust and Oxfam, who help organise and co-ordinate it.

The Ghurka Welfare Trust was set up in 1969 in order to provide financial, medical and community aid to alleviate hardship and distress among Gurkha ex-servcemen of the British Crown and their dependants after they have returned to their homeland of Nepal. Some of you may well have read about the recent case of Tul Bahadur Pun, a Ghurka soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross. I know Razorhead blogged about it. Well it’s people like him and other former Ghurka’s who this charity helps.

Oxfam is a charity that most people are aware of. You may not be aware of everything they do and think they just send food to famine victims in Africa. They do a lot more than that though - they set up HIV and Aids awareness and diagnosis programmes in countries like Thailand, help tackle urban poverty in Russa and setup schools and community housing for the poor and outcast indigenous communities in Bolivia amongst other things.

So what’s Trailwalker then?

Well, as the name suggests, it’s a walk. As part of a team of four (made up of myself, my mother, my brother and a family friend), we’re going to be doing a sponsored walk. Now before you tut and sigh and say “But Dragon, you’ve just spent a weekend running up and down mountains in the Scottish highlands - a walk isn’t going to be much of challenge!” I should remind you that this is me. This isn’t some 5km or 10km walk I’m going to be doing. For that matter it’s not even 25km.

In a little over 4 weeks, on Saturday July 14th, we will be walking 100km along the South Downs way, from Petersfield in Hampshire to Brighton in East Sussex. And we have 30 hours to do it.

By taking part in Trailwalker I’m hoping to raise money for both these charities and I’m asking you, yes you, to help by sponsoring me to do it. Maybe you can only afford to sponsor me a pound, maybe you’ll put 10 pounds in. That’s only the price of a couple of bottles of wine or four pints of beer and hell, it means you’re sponsoring for a mere 10p a kilometre. But every penny and every pound that I raise will be helping someone who desperately needs it. And if you’re feeling extra generous, perhaps you could mention this on your blogs and ask some of your readers to contribute too.

You can sponsor me online on my BMyCharity page which is here. However, if you’d prefer to use PayPal or even another method instead, let me know and I’ll set something up.

Please dig deep and together we can make a difference.