Leanne Nansen

I'm hitting The March Charge hard 😮!

The March Charge is a month-long fitness challenge to raise funds for world-class cancer research. It's 10 years years old this year and as important as ever.

Facebook reminded me it's been 11 years since I began fundraising for The Hunger Project. Seeing me travel (at my own expense) to Uganda to see their work firsthand.

Which got me thinking.

The last time I fundraised for a worthy cause (the Fred Hollows Foundations) was over 5 years ago during covid lockdowns. Back then, I set a goal to get out of the house and walk 100km in 31 days for my wellbeing. (And, in an attempt to convince people I know to help me raise $500 to restore sight for 20 people 😆.)

It worked. Maybe because a lot of us needed to feel we were doing something good at a time many of us struggled. Whatever the reason, I went back over my Facebook timeline and saw that I hit that target in 10 days 😯, and my fundraising goal in a week 🙌.

It was then I impulsively (foolishly?) upped that walking goal to 200kms. Which I did hit at the eleventh-hour courtesy of not working fulltime during lockdowns and having access to a treadmill seeing me able to walk up to 20kms a day once or twice.

I am fairly certain it would be quite tough (working fulltime and sans treadmill at home) to hit that lofty goal again.

But the past few years I have been quietly working on my health; and health’s harder for some of us than others.

(Especially so for the recipients of this money we are raising: which many of us have witnessed, or experienced, first hand.)

Me? I am woman at ‘that’ time of life. I injured 4 discs in my back in the past 15 years (3 whilst training to be fitter – go figure). I slipped off a deck in 2021 seeing me tear apart and waste muscle, and kill off tissue on the left side of my body. This atop of the physical impacts of working 8-10 (often more) hours a day at a desk for the past 25 years. As a result, I’ve struggled with fitness, especially due to what I was told I was allowed to do based on my injuries and constraints (often conflicting advice). Made all the harder when you toss mental wellbeing and resilience on top of that stack!

So, a few years ago I began working top down. Starting with my noggin. I learnt how trauma responses (we all have them) and cortisol levels (ever considered yours?) from decades of operating how, and ignoring what, I had been had quite literally held my holistic health and wellbeing back. I faced issues, reduced stress, and made space for growth. I’m a healthier person now for it, and positive about the hard yards I need to take to restore strength and vitality for my future.

And there’s a ways to go.

So when Facebook reminded me it’s been a while since I fundraised and that familiar itch to give something back returned, I decided to again unite health goals with the good vibes that come with fundraising.

My first goal is being kinder to the body I make sit is a chair all day by bringing meaningful (touch the grass) walking back as a daily activity.

So, inspired by my sister-in-law, I am starting with this: the Cancer Council’s March Charge.

Whilst I again hope to hit the lofty heights of August 2020, I’m starting with that achievable goal of 100km’s (3.2ish km’s a day) in March.

Willing to ditch a coffee today and use $5 to help me raise money for a great cause?

Donate now!