Dubai :A Dubai radio personality is pounding a personal "pavement of pain" by aiming to walk a marathon a week to raise funds for charity, despite suffering from a painful disorder.
Radio 2 breakfast show presenter Daisy Clarkson, who suffers from a genetic skin condition, Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB), is targeting to walk 52,000 steps (42km - the distance of a marathon race) each week since she began her endeavour two weeks ago at the community gardens at The Galleries in Jebel Ali.
Daisy is looking to raise money for Debra (Dystrophic Epidermolysis Bullosa Research Association), a UK charity for people suffering from the condition.
EB causes multiple blisters in reaction to minor friction or heat.
Walking, for those afflicted with the condition, is a painful and slow affair and Daisy has to regularly pop the blister jellies with a needle to help control the inflammation.
This is the reason she does walkathons only once a week because her skin needs time to recover in between the walks. Daisy, who wears a pedometer to help her incorporate the target into her daily routine, is coming close to her target with each passing week. This week she has already notched up 48,414 steps through the walkathon and normal routine and she is confident of achieving the 52,000-step target by the end of the week. She feels confident of doing it in the next two weeks as well, till her mission comes to an end on April 17.
Daisy let XPRESS in on some of her survival tricks such as storing her shoes overnight in the freezer to keep her feet cool while walking and stocking up on plenty of talcum powder to prevent rubbing.
Daisy is being supported in her endeavour by her sister-in-law, who is running the London Marathon, also on April 17, to help raise money for Debra. Her husband (Daisy's brother) suffers from a more severe form of EB.
Daisy, whose other brother also has a severe form of EB, told XPRESS that though she suffered a milder form of EB, living in Dubai's constant heat meant her skin frequently broke out in blister jellies, which needed popping with a needle from her blister kit.
Daisy said she was also motivated to walk at least twice a week, after learning that residents here, on an average, manage to walk only about half the recommended 10,000 steps a day.
Even more shocking, Daisy said, was the fact that five per cent of residents barely did any kind of walking in a week, as revealed in a survey of 600 people's walking patterns by master developer Limitless last year.
"If I can walk this much, so can most people," she said. Daisy's progress can be followed at www.facebook.com/daisyradio2
