In February last year, Royal Star & Garter Chair Major General Tim Tyler embarked on a daunting challenge. He set himself 12 months to complete 1,000 miles on his cross trainer and raise money for Royal Star & Garter in the process. Now, with less than a month of his challenge to go, he explains why he’s putting himself through the wringer, how he’s getting on, and how readers can help him.

On 25 February 2022, I committed to doing 1,000 miles on my cross trainer in sympathy with the care teams at Royal Star & Garter in Solihull, Surbiton and High Wycombe – recognising that they were still very much constrained by Covid, even though the rest of the country was being released from most of the restrictions. Even today, our staff still have to be extra vigilant with the associated extra pressure on them.

I have already passed 1,000 miles and will now almost certainly (barring injury or illness) get to 1,100 miles in the year. I’m averaging 8.3mph, exceeding my speed target of 8mph. I’ve not been able to get on the machine as often as I had expected – I thought I would be able to do about 250 sessions, but it will be nearer 200 as a result of work, leave, family commitments and a bout of Covid. So I’ve had to do longer sessions than planned, mostly about six miles which takes about 43 minutes.

I’m often asked if I get bored, but I use the time to listen to In Tune on BBC Radio 3, which I really enjoy. Obviously, the exercise really does me good, and enables me to do something I really enjoy – eating! I can’t really imagine what life would be like if I couldn’t eat all those calories I’m burning!

The one disappointment has been that I’m short of my £1,000 fundraising target. Why not sponsor me now?  If you want to give me a challenge, how about sponsoring me for every mile I do in excess of 1,100? That will keep me focussed right up until I finish on 24 February! You can find my fundraising page here.