Jenny Brown decided that leading up to her 30th birthday, she would take on an exciting endeavour to complete 30 challenges in aid of Canine Partners.

These challenges included watching 30 movies recommended by other people, visiting the Shard in London and trying 30 new foods she had never tried before. She ticked off all of her challenges in time for her birthday on 9th October and has so far raised £120. Well done, Jenny!

Of her challenge, Jenny said:

“I doubt I’m the first person to come up with the idea of doing a list on the run up to my 30th birthday… but when I got the idea into my head I couldn’t shake it off! And with just over 4 months to do it in I’d certainly put the pressure on!

I originally wanted to do big things for my birthday like sky diving, travelling, flying lessons etc…but money isn’t great and my health hasn’t been at it’s best lately so I decided to do this list a bit differently.”

Five years ago, Jenny started getting back problems after a fall. She discovered that she has a degenerative spine with a bulge disc, enlarged facet joints and a slipped vertebrae. Her muscles are also progressively wasting away so many activities she used to enjoy are now becoming more difficult and tiring to complete.

Because of this, Jenny opted for smaller challenges that she hadn’t done before, many of which came with unexpected problems (or sub-challenges as a friend put it!). However, she remained optimistic.

“I learnt if you really put your mind to it, you can work around your problems and overcome them. All the challenges in the end had amazing outcomes. It just kept getting better and better as it went along”.

Jenny chose Canine Partners as she wanted to support people who have difficulties doing everyday tasks. She also wanted to support our dogs as dogs have made a big difference in her own life as a dog walker.

Now that she has completed her #30thingsforyour30th list, she is now moving on to a new list she has called #30thingsnowyouare30 where she is setting herself some more challenges to complete!

“The idea of doing a second list originally occurred halfway through the first one because I didn’t want it all to end, but then I immediately dismissed the idea at the risk of it all becoming mundane.

I felt ecstatic from completing the first list but then I felt empty as it was all over. The list had made such a positive difference to me and knowing it was helping so many other people I couldn’t let it end. My circumstances haven’t changed at all but my whole outlook on life has. And knowing I can help make someone else’s life even better with Canine Partners makes it all worth while.”

You can follow Jenny’s journey over on Facebook by following the #30thingsnowyouare30. If you’d like to donate to Jenny’s challenge, visit her JustGiving page.