It is that time of year again and my training has started for the Reading Half Marathon.  This year’s goal is to run the 21km in 2 hours or less (if only by 1 minute!) .  I will be running on behalf of Great Ormond Street Hospital, raising much needed funds to support all the amazing work they do.

Every year they need to raise £50 million to help rebuild and refurbish the hospital, buy vital equipment and fund pioneering research.

£100 could pay for 10 nights upkeep for one of the parent accommodation rooms, when children are poorly and they just want to be close to Mum and Dad.

£360 could pay for three flowmeters, helping to regulate the flow of oxygen and air to babies and children.

£798 could pay for a wheelchair and its accessories.

£2,315 could pay for pain relief syringe pumps.  They provide continous pain relief medication to the children in cardiac intensive care.

If you would like to sponser me or make a donation, please go to: www.justgiving.com/Jayne-Doyle and don’t forget to tick the gift aid box (this enables the charity to claim tax back from the government and is worth an extra 25%, which doesn’t cost you a penny, but is extra money to benefit the charity).

Otherwise, do come along on 1st April and cheer us on, it really does make a difference and motivates us to keep running!!!!

 

This Charity Fundraising Event is to be held on Saturday 11th February in Reading. Come along and enjoy a 30 minute treatment for a minimum £10 donation.  Choose from a range of massages, including: Indian Head, Thai Yoga, Thai Foot, Reflexology, Seated Acupressure, Back neck and shoulder, Sports and Lava Shell, Reiki or a Neals Yard facial.

We will be raising funds for 3 charities, Healing Hands Network, which as you know is the charity I volunteer for, treating civil victims of war and disaster.  I still need to raise over £700 to enable me to go to Sarajevo for 2 weeks this year.  If you are unable to make the health awareness day on the 11th, you are warmly invited to make a donation on line at: www.mycharitypage.com/jayne (don’t forget to tick the gift aid box).

The other charities being supported on this day are: Shantideva Centre and Mukti.  Details of all the charities and their work will be available on the day.

Click on this link for further details:  Health Awareness and De- Stress Day

 

Happy 2012 to you all!

I trust you had a festive season and feel full of energy for the year ahead….

I will be teaching some massage therapies this year, starting with Aromatherapy and Reflexology, at a stunning new venue in Hungerford.  See links below for details and don’t hestiate to contact Abi at Aspire directly to book your place.  Places are limited to ensure plenty of individual attention.

http://www.beauty-courses.org.uk/Courses/Short/Aromatherapy.php

http://www.beauty-courses.org.uk/Courses/Short/Reflexology.php

 

 

 

 

 

My fundraising continues for Healing Hands Network (www.healinghandsnetwork.org.uk) and my trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia in 2012, to help bring relief to those still suffering trauma in the aftermath of the war in the 1990s.

I am  looking to the local community to help me raise the £750 needed to make the trip possible.  The charity also need to raise funds for their newly launched project to treat returning service personnel. Our target is a massive £20,000 for 2012.

On Saturday 17^th December 2011, I will be offering taster treatments at the Crystal Moon shop, 3 High Street, Goring from 10am – 4pm. 

Come along RELAX, CHILL OUT and experience a 30 minute treatment in a range of therapies, including: Indian Head Massage, Reflexology, Reiki or Seated Acupressure Massage for a minimum £10 donation (if you can not make the event, you are warmly invited to make a donation online at: www.mycharitypage.com/Jayne)

To make an advanced booking, contact me on: 07928 995653 or email: info@jaynedoyle.com

 

800km later and into Santiago we walked, well skipped really! It was so exciting to finally get to the Cathedral and to complete our journey. It was not without a few tears too, as we each realised this was the end of our indiviudal journeys and also of our journey together as a group.  I for one, was keen to keep everyone together for a long as possible and to enjoy one or two more glasses of wine!

The final 3 weeks, were as equally fantastic as the first two.   The landscape ever changing, from Meseta desert to pine forests, to busy cities of Leon and Astorga, the sleeping villages of Belorado, Samos and Villafranca and the Galicia region of rain and oak trees, reminding me of England!!  Rugby was a big part of the journey too, with my French pilgrims very happy with their team getting  to the world cup final.

There was quite a group of us towards the end and I miss them all!

I did manage to take some pictures, enjoy!

I have just finished Day 12 of the Camino de Santiago, having walked a total of 265km (ish)… and am having a blessed and awsome experience.  As you know I am raising funds for Healing Hands Network, the charity I work with treating civil victims of war and disaster (www.mycharitypage.com/jayne).

The spirit of comaraderie is fantastic and I am now walking with a lovely bunch of people, mostly French men!!!

Each day we walk 20-30km, over awsome terrain, some flat, some hilly upto 1400m, some with the shade of oak and pine trees, grapes, olive groves, through remote and quite villages (where we wonder where the people are) and some busy cities. 

We have been blessed with sunshine, upto 30 degrees most days, so have tanned faces, arms and calves!  You welcome even 30 seconds of shade.

The path is so well marked with scollop shells, only 1 or 2 we have got a little lost, but always an adventure.  We are now used to carrying our packs (I think mine is about 10kilos) and I have been very lucky with no blisters, pulled muscles or  broken skin around the shoulders.  To start with my muscles around the shoulders were sore, but now they are fine and I am almost recovered from a cold (not so much fun, when walking 30km in 30 degree heat, up hill!!).

We spend the night in albergue´s  (like a youth hostel), some old and quaint with tons of character and some new and clinical and functional.  I prefer the parish ones where you pay by donation and eat a communal meal together in the event, though getting a little bored of pasta, still food is food and the general concensus is that by the time we get to Santiago, I will be eating meat, cheese and drinking beer!!!

As you know, I love to take photos, but have only taken 2 so far, it is just too much like hard work at times to take the camera out of my pack, but I will try and take pictures of the people I travel with…

I am doing some exchange with the massage, the boys will pay for my bed, or a meal, or cider in exchange for back and leg massage.  I even got the lion man to clench his teeth with pain.

We are now in Burgos, a lovely town and might take a rest day tomorrow.  Though we are in a good routine of getting up around 6.30am and heading off by 7am, on the road for sunrise and before the worst of the heat.  It also means we have time to do the km and have a siesta before eating in the evening.

We have a point of reflection each day and most days the conversation turns to matter of spirituality, though of course you can imagine other topics of conversation travelling with 3 french men and 1 spanish!!!!  I think I need some more female company!

Time to sign off and have some sleep, we got a little lost today, so 8 hours of walking and no wind, so burning hot sun.. still we have a bed for the night and laughter to keep us going.

We are following a guide book that suggests the walk could take 33 days or 35 with a couple of rest days, I think we now have 501km to go!!! There is talk of being able to extend the walk to the sea, another 90km or so, we will see!

I hear the weather in the UK is good, so enjoy enjoy

xx

I head off 21st September 2011, to walk the Camino de Santiago.

The Camino de Santiago de Compostela, also known in English as The Way of St James, is a collection of old pilgrimage routes which cover all Europe. For more than 1000 years pilgrims have been walking along the Camino de Santiago.

The Camino de Santiago traditionally starts in St Jean Pied de Port and finishes in Santiago de Compostela about 780km later, after traveling the breadth of Northern Spain..

http://www.caminodesantiago.me.uk/

All those km’s (and no doubt blisters!) are to raise funds to enable me to fly to Sarajevo, Bosnia, to help bring relief to those still suffering trauma in the aftermath of the war, under the banner of British charity, Healing Hands Network.

Healing Hands Network is a charity that was formed in 1996 by a group of complementary therapists who wanted to help those people affected by the siege of Sarajevo in the Bosnian war. Between 1992 and 1995, the city’s 500,000 inhabitants were trapped without sufficient food, power, or healthcare, facing dreadful atrocities including torture and ethnic cleansing. Clients have reported a wealth of other positive effects including an increase in optimism and hope.

If you are able to support my fundraising journey, you can make an on-line donation at:

http://www.mycharitypage.com/Jayne/

Thank you for your continued support.

4 weeks back in the UK and I am still missing Sarajevo, the people, the work, the coffee!!  I am so grateful, as are the people of Sarajevo, for all your support.  The fundraising task continues (http://www.mycharitypage.com/jayne), help spreading the work, or fundraising ideas always welcome!

After my last post I had another 4 amazing weeks, working, walking around the city, drinking coffee, climbing hills, visiting cultural sites and the most significant of all was going to Srebrenica  (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/675945.stm).  I have done a lot of travelling in my time, but have never felt so vunerable and wanting to leave a place as I did when I stepped off the bus in Srebrenica.

Knowing what had happened there, the unspeakable atrocities, the violence and having treated refugees in Sarajevo all combined to making me feel very uncomfortable.  So much so that I couldn’t stay in the town and decided to walk back to the bus stop to sit and wait the 4 hours for the bus back to Sarajevo.  On the way I passed the UN Development Project building so stopped in to see if I could find the war memorial site, a place I really wanted to visit.

A lovely man Dzil spoke with me, locked up his office and drove me the few km to the war memorial site.  He was amazing and told me all about the area, the seige of the town between 1992 -1995 and his own experience of escaping the town and marching to Tuzla in1995 and the killing of his friends.  He is one of the organisers of the peace march now held annually to mark the genocide and to pay their respects to the loved ones they lost (http://www.srebrenica.ba/index.en.php?subaction=showfull&id=1268339334&archive=&start_from=&ucat=3&).

He introduced me to his friend Hasan, who spent 90 mins chatting with me about his experience of being a 16 year old boy in the town during the seige, having his friend blown up in front of him and of being on the march to Tuzla, loosing his twin brother, father and many friends.  It was so sad and horrific, my heart bled.  He showed me around the UN base, pointed to the spot where hundreds of men and boys were shot, to the place where thousands of women and children were taken on buses to other towns and concentration camps. He talked about finding the mass graves, of the identification process of people, of surviving families who have to make the choice of laying to rest 40% of their loved one, or waiting to find the remaining 60% and then laying them to rest….

Will we ever learn?

Going back to Sarajevo and then working with the refugees was very intense and gave me such a better insight into the people and just how brave and dignified and graceful they are, we have a lot to learn from them.

After 7 weeks, I took a bus down to Neum, the only stretch of Bosnian coastline and had a lovely few days enjoying the sunshine, running, swimming and generally restoring myself.

I shall be in the UK over the summer, working at various festivals and events, so do come and find me!

Almost 8 weeks later and back in the UK.. what an amazing experience working with Healing Hands Network charity and the awsome people in Sarajevo, I will update the blog again within the next few days with stories and pictures!

For now… I have a new mobile number: 07928 995 653, this supersedes the previous 07960 757 889….

I have just finished my 3rd week of work with the charity in Sarajevo, 1 more week to go, then a week off and back on 14th May for a further 2 weeks work. 

This has all been possible with the kind donations you have made to Healing Hands Network and a personal donation by myself.  Money is always short though and if you are able to make donation, I know the people of Bosnia will really appreciate it (www.mycharitypage.com/jayne). Whilst I appreciate this cause is close to my heart, you will have your own charities you support, so any help in spreading the word would be a fantastic.

We didn’t make it to the moutains the other weekend, but instead I took a bus to Visoko, the site of the Bosnian pyramids.  Apparently Semir Osmanagic, a Bosnian researcher noticed two geometrically symmetrical elevations, now called pyramid of Sun and pyramid of Moon and since a further 3 have been ‘discovered’. Many locals are unsure as to whether they are pyramids or not, but it made for a very good day out, the sun was shining, a good climb and fantastic views of Visoko!

I met  with the Sarajevo Hash House Harriers last weekend.. a running club, or as they describe themselves, a drinking club with a running problem! A great bunch of people with some amazing humanitarian jobs here in Sarajevo. We walked up a big hill (behind where I am living) to amazing 360 views of the city and a very strategic site during the seige, where many people lost their lives and snippers were able to fire upon the city centre.  It is still littered with land mines, so we had to tread carefully.

I am still very much in love with the people and place and enjoying all the treatments, it’s great to see people’s pain reducing.  I am picking up more of the language, so communication is getting easier.