130 miles for 10,000 Dogs

There are currently 10,000 stray dogs on Koh Samui, 8 million in Thailand and 500 million around the world.

That's a lot of unloved, in-danger pups.

Niall Harbison (https://www.instagram.com/niall.harbison/) lives with around 80 dogs, helping far more each day and plans to one day help a whopping 10,000 street dogs.

Spending around $2000-3000 per month on keeping the dog sanctuary running, donations will help to pay for veterinary care of the dogs.

Nothing saves lives more than stopping new puppies from arriving but using local vets to sterilize the dogs is super expensive (about $50 per dog) and tricky logistically however Niall is hoping to have sterilized 400 dogs by the end of April which will result in 10,000s of potential future puppies stopped.

Back to the current pups under his care, here are just some of the costs related to the pups:

Vet trip after Parvo (approx $150)

Vaccines ($10)

Sterilising ($50)

Paperwork and tests to get pup a forever home ($300)

Flights to a forever home ($800)

Niall's goal is to help 10,000 dogs and setting up a clinic is the most efficient way to do this but at $150,000 to kit out the clinic with equipment and staff it for the year this is a long way off.

Even just food for his existing 70 - 80 rescues is costing around $30 a day.

While we can't get to clinic levels just yet I'd love your support to help cover a few days' food for the dogs or even a few sterilizations. Donating money will not only help pay for these vital costs but also show Niall how much his work means to others.

So what am I doing? Well, no one wants to eat my baking and I didn't fancy the bath of baked beans so it's back to running...

I will be taking part in:

Edinburgh Marathon on the 28th May (26.2 miles)

The Sunset Marathon on the 24th of June (26.2 miles)

These events then lead into my first Ultra marathon Run The Blades, at a whopping 31 miles this will be my longest-ever event.

And because this wasn't enough I have a place on The Montane Winter Spine Sprint a non-stop, 46 mile race.

The race covers a challenging and technical section of the Pennine Way. It’s physically and psychologically demanding and requires a degree of self-sufficiency and skill (which I don't have).

Beginning from Edale in Derbyshire (no idea where this is), runners have a time limit of 18 hours to reach the finish line at Hebden Bridge (again no idea but hoping I can use a map by January).

In total, I will run nearly 130 miles and that, of course, does not include any training runs. I feel knackered already.

Luckily for me, I have a training partner who never tires (although she doesn't always want to put her harness on). Our rescue Quinn will be benefitting from all the training runs and even possibly joining for parts of events - if she can stop getting distracted by squirrels and dropped sausage rolls.

Anything you can donate, no matter how small will go into the pot to support Niall and the dogs and be so gratefully received.