‘We were overwhelmed by the generosity of friends, family and even people we'd never met’

As I celebrated my 60^th birthday recently, I wanted to do something to mark the occasion, so a '60 at 60' golf challenge was suggested: play 60 holes of golf, one for each of my 60 years.

My nephew, Piers, agreed to accompany me and we played on Sunday 5 July at Denham Golf Club, where I've been a member for over 40 years.

Teeing off on our 60-hole challenge

The day went very well, and several people walked a few holes with us. It got up to 28 degrees, but we made sure to drink lots of water and have plenty of snacks. We walked 40,000 steps (18.5 miles) and it took 12 hours to complete our challenge! In total, we spent 10 hours on the golf course and 2 hours on the terrace during our breaks, starting at 6:30am and finishing at 6:30pm.

We were both quite tired by the end but so pleased that we had completed the challenge without injuring ourselves or getting sunstroke. We actually both felt we could have done another 9 holes!

Although the point wasn't to score well, we did manage to play well and posted some very respectable scores. My handicap is 11 (getting 15 shots) and Piers’ is 10 (getting 12 shots). We carried our own clubs the whole way; I had 5 clubs and Piers had 9.

A fundraising hole-in-one

We set a target of £2,000 but I’m thrilled that the total currently stands at £4,100! We were overwhelmed by the generosity of friends and family, and even one or two people we hadn’t met but who had heard about our challenge.

We were so grateful for the support from Bipolar UK and proudly wore the t-shirts. We also attached orange balloons to our golf bags to draw attention to ourselves and a sign with a QR code on my car during the day so people could make donations.

Playing in Jeremy’s memory

My husband, Jeremy, had bipolar and sadly took his own life 5 years ago, having suffered for 30 years. We wanted to raise money for Bipolar UK as they do such good work supporting people with bipolar, as well as their families, and wanted to raise awareness.

It seems that bipolar is far more common than is widely known and any publicity is helpful. It was a poignant date because the day after the golf challenge would have been Jeremy's 57^th birthday.