Back in March we posted a blog from Matthew Brewster, Matt contacted us to let us know that even though he had been diagnosed with Avascular Necrosis (AVN), Osteoarthritis & a Liver disease in 2008, he wasn't going to let that beat him. So Matt has been raising money to help others, he hasn't been baking cakes or a sponsored silence although these are both great fundraisers. Matt has been pushing himself to his physical limits...

"I won't be sorry to finish 2012 in some respects, I got off to a flying start with the challenge of 2012 - arm powered miles in 2012, but one injury followed by another and then a house move put me more off track in my progress than I could really hope to make up during the year. I did get back on track and have been powering away on the rower since the start of September, getting stuck into the Challenge series and setting new seasons best all the time, I feel like I have come back stronger. It seems to be a weird thing for me having a degenerating bone disease, as whilst my legs are getting weaker the upper body is getting stronger and though I turn 41 in January in some respect I feel like I am just reaching a peak and fired up for the New Year. 2012 was not a total write off, I still raised a fair amount for the charities I was supporting which overall is the most important thing.

So to 2013, thinking about mistakes and problems in the last year, I have decided to do things a little differently, so my fundraising challenge will be a "ParaDecathlon", 10 events in several sports over the course of the year, which will include a world record attempt in wheelchair basketball in June and a world record attempt for the fastest half marathon on crutches in Plymouth in April, the Concept 2 March Madness challenge will form the 3rd event of the year as well as a trip to Newquay for the Cornish IRC, all in aid of the Childrens Hospice South West, one of the events I am looking at doing is a distance row at my local Cooperative supermarket.

My fundraising has helped me meet some lovely people, people who make you feel quite humble and make you think twice about moaning about lifes trivialities, I want to achieve as much as I can. I have a facebook page on http:/http://www.facebook.com/MattB2013 which I try and update people regularly on my progress etc, my main fundraising page is http://www.justgiving.com/teams/matt2012 "