Bigger than me

To keep things in perspective, I'm making my journey to Ironman bigger than me. It's safe to say that by committing to a challenge as big as this, it can be so easy to let it become all about you. The training, nutrition, sleep and planning can soon become what your world revolves around. I want to try my best to keep this in balance (wish me luck!) and at the same time leverage off it to help raise money for a cause that captured my attention.


The super six.

Up Up Up, Down Down Down, the climbs felt never ending!

Earlier this year in June, Lill's and I set off on a different kind of challenge, Kokoda. As testing as some of the climbs we conquered and as rugged as the terrain we crossed, we had a blast. It was on this trip that I first heard about Dr Barry Kirby. I was amazed by his efforts in Papua New Guinea to reduce the mortality rate in women during or after childbirth. Being pregnant in PNG instantly places women at a risk up to 240 times greater of dying in childbirth compared to here in Australia. Most cases are from complications that are entirely avoidable. 


The children in the villages were adorable...

Dr Kirby, previously a trades man, witnessed such an preventable death in 1990 and since then has transformed his life in order to aid others by becoming an obstetrician. He has been building initiatives to improve the care given in medical centres, along side creating incentives for women to travel from remote villages to have supervised deliveries. What a simple intervention.

For something that is so common and celebrated here at home, it shocked me that childbirth can become a life or death scenario all too often in country that is practically on our doorstep.

I am in the process of working with Send Hope, Not Flowers, to create a direct debit link from their webpage, however in the mean time I am taking cash donations or contact me via facebook message. 

To find out more about the organisation:
www.sendhope.org 

For more info on Dr Barry Kirby and his cause:
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/a-builders-labour/story-e6frg8h6-1226613133623