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Murray Family Challenge 24

By Kirsteen Murray

I am fundraising for Pancreatic Cancer UK.

It's been over 6 months now since Auntie Anna lost her battle with pancreatic cancer. She faced her challenge bravely, with no complaints, and still managed to live her life to the full despite the effects that pancreatic cancer had on her.

Pancreatic cancer is tough to diagnose, tough to treat and tough to research. We wanted to do some challenges as a family to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer UK in Anna's memory.

Over the month of June we are taking on 24 challenges each. The reason for choosing the number 24 is that every day in the UK 24 people lose their lives to Pancreatic Cancer.

Andy will write 24 different blog posts sharing his thoughts on different matters; Kirsteen will cook 24 new recipes; James, Ally and Fraser will play 24 different board games; Calum and David will go for a run and/or cycle on 24 days.

We do hope you are able to support us and help us raise money for Pancreatic Cancer UK in Anna's memory, so that their research can mean better outcomes for those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. 

Please support my fundraising!

Raised

£1,052 + £186.36 GiftAid

My Goal

£500

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My Activity Tracking

274
>miles

My target 150 miles

My donations could fund...

40 hours with a nurse on our Support Line

or

18 hours of early diagnosis research

My Achievements

Reached 100% of goal

Reached 50% of goal

Shared page

Self donated

Distance travelled

Reached distance goal

My Updates

June 21st - Day 21

Another week of challenges complete. You can see from our target page that Calum and David have beaten their target of 150 miles. This was largely helped by Calum going out on his own one afternoon and cycling 30k! 

Andy had a busy week at work and so has just reached his 12th blog post. Still plenty time to catch up!

For our board games this week the boys played Monopoly, The Legend of Zelda Edition, with Fraser being the clear winner. 

I joined them for Ticket to Ride, which is in the running for my favourite board game. We then played it again the following day with Calum and David joining us, who brought their usual competitiveness to it. Since neither of them won they are both very keen to play it again as soon as possible to try and rectify that!

Fraser used his love of board game to invent his own one this week, called Quest of Honour. He spent ages drawing out the goblins, the money and the super mean bad guy boss to defeat at the end of it.

Their final board game this week, number 15 so far, was Memoir 44, a new game that James bought Andy for Father's Day. They managed to complete three rounds of this one in one day.

In the kitchen I managed 6 new recipes, starting off with Ratatouille Chicken, another Nick Nairn recipe (I'm making my way through a book of his I've had for years - 100 Chicken Recipes). Next was Mars Bar Brownies (https://www.janespatisserie.com/2019/07/20/mars-bar-brownies/) which were amazingly gooey and squidgy.

David's favourite from the week was the Red Thai Pork Curry I made (a Mary Berry recipe). My favourite savoury recipe of the week was another Nick Nairn one, Chicken Cassoulet - a casserole of chicken thighs, bacon, toulouse sausages, tomatoes, thyme and canellini beans. It was another of those dishes that cooked slowly in the oven and made us all super hungry as we could smell it cooking.

The final two recipes this week were Firecracker Pulled Brisket (https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/pulled-firecracker-brisket), which we had with potato wedges and slow cooked red cabbage. At the same meal we had Mary Berry's individual Marble Puddings with chocolate sauce. I adapted the puddings to make them free from but made two different sauces so that those of us who can eat dairy could have Mary's version that uses Evaporated Milk. It was so good!

Day 21 totals:

Runs/Cycles - 18
Blog Posts - 12
Board Games - 15
New Recipes - 17

June 14th - Day 14

Two weeks into our challenges and so time for another update.

Calum and David are still leading the pack with their challenges. They have been on 13 cycles/runs and have covered over 117 miles. Their goal of 150 miles is well in sight now.

Andy has written 10 of his planned 24 blog posts on his blog at Ragged Theology.

James, Ally and Fraser (and various others of us who have joined in with them) have kept up with their board games this week, playing another 6 games and bringing their total so far up to 11. This week we played Don't Say It; Sakura; Risk (a three hour game which was perfect for the dull and foggy afternoon we had on Saturday); Jamaica; and Lords of Xidit (another long strategy game, and one that 6 year old Fraser is actually quite a master of!)

In the kitchen this week my new recipes were mostly all savoury, which is a surprise! We started the week off with Stovies, made with left over chicken from our Sunday Roast. Later on in the week I made Coq au Vin, using a Nick Nairn recipe. The photos for these two aren't exactly exciting but they tasted lovely, especially the Coq au Vin, which made us all so hungry as we could smell it slowly cooking throughout the afternoon! 

New Recipe number 9 was Beef Pasties, from the Rachel Allen cookbook Bake. This was my first time making hot water crust pastry, and I made both a normal batch and a free from one. It was such an easy pastry to use, even the free from one. The pasties were really good, and Calum said the left over that he ate cold later on in the evening was just as good as the warm ones we had at dinner. 

The last two new recipes were for Sunday lunch - Glazed Ham in Ginger Beer followed by Chocolate Orange Cheesecake. The ham recipe is from the BBC Good Food website here https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/apricot-ginger-ham and was so good. I realise that this is the third ginger beer recipe but this wasn't planned! I was looking for a ham recipe for Sunday lunch that was different from the usual ones that I do and came across that one so thought it worth a try. So glad I did!

The chocolate orange cheesecake recipe is from here https://www.janespatisserie.com/2015/05/17/no-bake-chocolate-orange-cheesecake/ Again, no real reason for another chocolate orange recipe, although who needs an excuse to use lots of chocolate oranges? This cheesecake was really good, although extremely rich so only small slices are necessary, and I actually think that given the choice I would prefer a slice of the Lemon Tart from last week's recipe! That's not to say I wouldn't ever make this cheesecake again though, I definitely will.

Day 14 totals:

Runs/Cycles - 13
Blog Posts - 10
Board Games - 11
New Recipes - 11

June 7th - Day 7

At the end of our first week of challenges we seem to be doing OK at keeping up with our targets. Here is our week one update. 

Smashing their targets are Calum and David with their cycling/running challenges. Their original aim was to go for 2.4 miles a day for 24 days, which would have been about 57 miles over the 24 days. Since they have already passed that we have made new target for them to reach 150 miles of combined running/cycling. Depending on how well they do with this we may be updating that too! You can see the record of their cycles/runs on the link to Strava on our page.

Andy has written 5 blog posts to date on his blog at Ragged Theology.

We have played 5 board games, missing out on a couple of days this week when it was Ally's 11th birthday and all the excitement that followed it. As well as the games mentioned in previous posts we played Samurai Spirit (a team game where everybody either all wins or all loses), King of Tokyo (which Fraser loves so much that we have played it at least 5 times this weekend!), and Soundiculous (like charades but with only noises and no acting, and very funny) Since we can only add one picture to each post here we are adding all the photos of our board game and cooking challenges to the gallery at the bottom of our page and you can see them there if you are interested. 

In the kitchen I managed a total of 6 new recipes, all of them very popular and definitely being added to my list of regulars. Recipe no 2 was Strawberry Pie, something I have wanted to try making for a while but had put off as the recipe I had was American and I wasn't sure if it would work, especially as I was going to adapt it to be gluten and dairy free. It did work and was a huge hit, with Andy declaring it his new favourite pudding ever! I also made Ginger Beer Cordial (which even the Ginger Beer haters loved); Ginger Beer Marinated Chicken (a recipe that we have all enjoyed at a friend's house and that Calum has been asking me to get the recipe for for a long time. I didn't use my nice homemade Ginger Beer to make this but a cheap supermarket one instead, but the homemade ginger beer was a perfect drink to have with it.); Sage, Lemon and Bacon Roast Chicken (a Nick Nairn recipe that was delicious. Strawberry Pie was declared Andy's new favourite pudding and this was declared Andy's new favourite Sunday lunch!); and a Lemon Tart (another recipe that has been on my pinterest board for a while. I didn't adapt this to be free from as it contained double cream and a lot of butter in the lemon curd topping and I wasn't sure I could make it work with free from ingredients. I need to work on my pastry finishing techniques as it doesn't quite look up to Mary Berry standards, but it tasted great and James, David and I enjoyed it very much. A day later there is already less than half of it left.)

I mentioned in our last post that we are thinking of doing 24 different musical recordings, and we made the first of our recordings this week. We're just making sure that we can make a list of 24 different songs and musical combinations before actually committing to this challenge to but we're hopeful to be able to add it in too!

June 7th totals are:

Runs - 4
Cycles - 7
Blog Posts - 5
Board Games - 5
New Recipes - 6

June 2nd - Day 2

I don't think we'll manage to update this every day of the month, but we'll do our best!

Today Andy posted blog post number 2 in the morning, and is currently working on post number 3.

Calum and David went out for a 10k cycle in the morning and then Calum ran 5k in the afternoon - as well as managing to fit in a walk with Storm the dog (who we inherited from Auntie Anna).

I made a start on my new recipe challenge by baking a cookie recipe I have had pinned on my Pinterest board for some time now but haven't ever got round to trying - Chocolate Orange Cookies (recipe can be found at https://www.janespatisserie.com/2015/02/20/chocolate-orange-cookies/) 

I wanted to have something sweet and indulgent as my first new recipe as we all know how much Anna loved to have a cake stop at the end of a long hill walk. She also always seemed to have a chocolate orange in her kitchen cupboard, so this recipe seemed very suitable as a starting point.

These cookies are contenders for one of the tastiest things I have ever baked. Seriously! The texture of them is perfect, a little bit chewy, but not too much, and not at all hard or crunchy. And the chocolate orange flavour is amazing. James and David - the only two boys who don't have a dairy & wheat allergy and so were able to enjoy these - agree about how amazing these are. 

For our board game this evening the boys chose Dungeon Mayhem, which is not strictly a board game as it is played with cards, but it's been a favourite of Fraser and Ally's since we first got it at the start of lockdown. In fact I think we have played it at some point just about every day! Calum, David and I joined in with the game tonight, and I ended up the victorious one, closely followed by Fraser. Since Calum and David had been on their run last night when we did our board game they wanted to play the game they missed out on, 5 Second Rule, so we also played that one again tonight too.

June 2nd totals are:

Runs - 2
Cycles - 2
Blog Posts - 2
Board Games - 2
New Recipes - 1

June 1st - Day 1

Most of us got our challenges kick started today, as well as a couple of changes and additions to our original plans.

Calum (17) has decided that he will also go for a cycle on 24 days as well as his run, and so at lunchtime he went out for a 10k cycle in the 24C heat. He also went for a 3.6k run with David (14) after dinner.

Andy has decided to switch his challenge up a little, by writing 24 thoughts over on his blog at www.raggedtheology.blogspot.com, and wrote the first one this morning.

I joined James (20), Ally (10), and Fraser (6) for the first of their 24 board games tonight. We played 5 Second Rule, a fun, fast thinking game that Fraser won.

I didn’t get started on my new recipes challenge today, although I did make a start on writing a list of recipes I want to try.

James and Calum have also thought about adding in yet another challenge, of playing 24 different musical collaborations. We’ll give that one a little bit more thought and then maybe add it in too!

June 1st totals are:

Runs - 1
Cycles - 1
Blog Posts - 1
Board Games - 1
New Recipes - 0

Thank you to my Supporters

£100

Jonathan And Mairi Keddie

In memory of Anna

£52

John And Linda Mcneill

£52

Catherine Mackenzie

Keep on baking these cakes.

£50

Margaret Maciver

In memory of Anna - a great friend. Well done on the challenges!

£49.92

Sarah Coghill

Great idea for the 24 challenges, I'm syre Anna would approve! So here's £24 from George and I to get you started.

£49.92

Esther Semmens

Hope all the fund raising and challenges go well! It's a great charity and in memory of such a wonderful lady missed by so many.

£49.92

Elizabeth Mackay

£41.60

Angusina Macmillan

£41.60

Christine Campbell

£41.60

Anonymous

£31.20

James And Donna Maciver

Well done guys.

£31.20

Iain Maciver

£31.20

Marion Henderson

£26

Iain Macdonald

£26

Fiona Christie

In memory of Anna, who I didn't know well, but respected from a distance, and of my friend Paul Hocking, who died of the same disease in July, 2018.

£26

John Macleod

£26

Nigel Anderson

£26

Donald Morrison

Great effort from you all x

£25

Anonymous

£25

Alasdair Macleod

All the best with your admirable fund raising effort for this worthy cause Kirsteen. Alasdair & Barbara xx

£24.96

C J Macdonald

You guys are doing amazing

£24.96

Patricia Tulley

£20.80

Joyce Langan

£20.80

Catriona Dunn

All the best with the rest of your challenges.

£20.80

Anonymous

£20.80

Anonymous

£20

Anne

£20

Mary Bell Macleod

Excellent cause well done x

£15

Judith Macdonald

Brilliant idea, all the best in your fundraising for a very good cause!

£10.40

Shirley Marshall

A very worthy cause. Hope you raise lots xxx

£10.40

Anonymous

£10.40

Pennylewis

Looking forward to seeing the results of your challenge s. Well done for doing this!

£10.40

Pamela Mclean

With love xx

£10.40

Penny Lewis

Well done to all of you on your creative fundraising!

£10

Mary