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Nell English (Lyttelton 08) Hits the Road!

4 April 2016

Nell

Nell is all set to start her 724km across Zimbabwe to raise money and awareness for mental health sufferers in Zimbabwe. She hopes to reach her destination of Victoria Falls in under 20 days.
 
Nell will set off from Harare, where she was born 27 years ago and grew up, on Tuesday 5 April, a date chosen so that she will coincide with the celebrations for World Health Day in Chegutu on 7 April. The route will be Harare - Norton - Kwekwe - Lupane - Victoria Falls and has never been attempted before, being a remote and dangerous part of the country with the dirt road flanked by game parks on either side.
 
“This run will be enormously challenging, and many people have tried to dissuade me from attempting it, but I am determined because I would like to do something for the Zimbabwe National Association for Mental Health.  ZIMNAMH is sorely short of funds and does such good work all over the country,” says Nell.
 
“I have always been interested in mental health and how it is treated and viewed by society, and read many fiction books around the theme growing up”, continues Nell who attended The Dominican Convent Primary and Senior School in Harare from 1995 to 2003.  “It is a cause I feel strongly about because mental health is so very misunderstood; all over the world and here in parts of Africa too.  People suffering from illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disease are often ostracized from society. As a cause, it also gets less media attention and funding than more publicity-friendly charities like those related to animals and children!”
 
With government resources stretched, some of ZIMNAMH’s psychiatric units need everything from clothes to food for their patients. All proceeds from the run will go to ZIMNAMH. 
 
Nell hopes to raise $2000 for ZIMNAMH.  As she believes sports can be therapeutic, she hopes ZIMNAMH will use some of the sum donated to purchase sports equipment for the patients in Harare. For the past few years the annual sporting event among different healthcare institutions has had to be cancelled for lack of equipment. With the money raised, Nell hopes to help revive the event so the patients can have their Sports Day back. 
 
ZIMNAMH are working closely with Nell to organise the practicalities of the run and providing support vehicles with volunteers driving alongside the runner en route.
 
Nell, who has never undertaken any charity fundraising activity of this nature before and has done just one marathon when she ran the Barcelona marathon in 2013, is still aiming to complete the route, despite the inclement heat and lack of humidity, in record-breaking time.
 
“My dream would be to cover the equivalent of a marathon every day so the run would be completed in 17 days”, says Nell, who doesn’t seem to see the irony when she adds that she prefers running by herself and not in competitions or competitive circumstances!
 
Nell started running and hiking as a young child with her father Christopher, who combined his interest in sport and health issues by coaching the Zimbabwe paralympic athletes. The most recent sporting challenge they did together was South Africa’s annual 110 km bicycle ride, the Cape Argus Race, in March.  A few months before that, Nell hiked the Simian mountains in Ethiopia, climbing their second highest peak.
 
To sponsor Nell with a donation to ZIMNAMH, please go to the website below.
 
https://www.gofundme.com/cdrn78kk