1,000,001 Charity Darts Event

The challenge was completed on Monday night (15th August) with 125 180s thrown and an overall average of 71!

Starting on Saturday 6th August 2022, I am going to be throwing darts in 30 different venues to score 1,000,001 in total. The event takes place over 10 consecutive days in 30 different venues with 3 different venues being visited each day. The event is going to be held around England in different counties, starting and ending in my home county - Suffolk. Wetherspoons also support the Young Lives vs Cancer charity and therefore, aside from my local darts venues that I play in, all of the venues are Wetherspoons pubs that have a dart board.

I am doing this event because of two reasons.
One is that I play in the Summer Sixes Charity Darts League in Bury St Edmunds which is linked to Young Lives vs Cancer and has previously raised over £60,000 for this charity. We have had no darts league for two years due to Covid and therefore no fundraising so this event has been organised to help make up for these last two years.

The second reason is to raise money for The ME Association and this is a charity very close to home and one that is often forgotten about. My youngest daughter Stephanie, 31, lives with severe chronic illness which is incredibly disabling. She has suffered with post-viral illness for 20 years since age 11 after she contracted Glandular Fever/Epstein-Barr virus (EBV). From her late teens, her health deteriorated every year and did so for more than a decade until she became bedridden for several weeks during a severe decline in early 2016.
Stephanie was eventually diagnosed with M.E. at age 25 and for nearly six years now, her illness has progressed and fluctuated. She has gone from living with mild-moderate M.E. to being severely affected. After each period of severe illness she has managed a small recovery but has never been able to gain back her previous levels of health.
For the last two years Stephanie has been predominantly housebound and she is often bedridden, relying on a lot of support from her husband David who is her primary carer. At the start of 2021 she was bedridden for 4-5 months suffering excruciating pain and fatigue. She lived in darkness and was very isolated due to severe sensitivity to sound, light and touch. She has been fighting hard for better health care and support from local services since.
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) is a long-term, multi-system disease that can have a devastating impact on functional ability and quality of life. It is a fluctuating, neurological condition that causes many symptoms and affects many body systems including the nervous system and immune system. It is estimated that 265,000 people in the UK live with M.E. and it affects around 17 million people globally. People with M.E. experience debilitating fatigue, unrefreshing sleep and/or sleep disturbance, PEM (see below) and cognitive dysfunction — as well as a range of other symptoms including joint and muscle pain, sensitivities to sound/light/touch/taste/smell, intolerances, orthostatic intolerance as well as autonomic dysfunction, and temperature dysregulation. The hallmark symptom is post-exertional malaise (PEM), which is an exacerbation of symptoms and inability to recover after expending even small amounts of energy. As with many chronic illnesses, people with M.E. are unlikely to be seen at their worst because debilitating symptoms prevent them from leaving their home. M.E. is a life-changing disease and can lead to long-term disability. It is a recognised complex post-viral syndrome and is being diagnosed in people with Long Covid. It dramatically impacts a person's ability to complete everyday tasks and to mobilise normally.
There are currently no effective treatments but convalescence and management can help stabilise and improve functional ability. 25% of people with M.E. are severely or very severely affected — meaning that they are housebound or bedridden and require full or part-time care. Full recovery is very rare.
I hope that during this event, awareness can be raised for both of these charities as well as a lot of money!