Senior Guide Simon Conroy Takes on the Tot Dret for the Fiona Conroy Trust

It has now been four years since the passing of my sister-in-law Fiona from a very aggressive strain of Leukemia. Although time passes on, my thoughts of Fiona and her achievements in life still move around my mind, especially when out running solo on long trails.

My family endeavors to keep Fiona’s memory alive through the Fiona Conroy Memorial Trust, which is part of the Jalia Charity. Jalia was created by Kate Mitchell, an old college friend of Fiona’s. The mission of the charity is to educate young Kenyan girls in the hope that one day one of these girls may follow in Fiona’s footsteps.

To date, we have raised just over £8,000 to provide secondary education to five young Kenyan girls from disadvantaged backgrounds. Two of them are now about to graduate and move onto higher education and, potentially, a university position.

In support of the Fiona Conroy Memorial Trust, I’ll be running Italy’s Aosta valley Tot Dret trail race, the newly-created sister race of the iconic Tor des Géants, or TdG. “Tot Dret” is Italian for “straight through,” and the Tot follows the second half of the TdG from Gressoney, Italy back into Courmayeur. The course covers 130km and includes 12,000 meters of ascent, with a cut-off time of 38 hours.

Every step taken will be in memory of Fiona and the advancement of our cause. I hope you may find some way to assist me on this endeavor and help young Kenyan girls to empower themselves through education, now and in the future.

Thank you.

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