When Adver reporter Liz Mackley signed up for a Prospect skydrive she never could have imagined where it would lead her IF you had told me when I first got involved just how much fundraising for the 160 Appeal was going to tumble dry my life I would have run for the hills.

It’s one thing to be pressed into doing a skydive for Prospect Hospice by your boss. It’s entirely another to be tasked to lose four stone, run 10km, and buy a whole new wardrobe for the same cause.

Add to that walking solidly for 24 hours, becoming a yogi, and revolutionising your outlook on life – well, that’s crossing the line from the ridiculous to the perverse.

But somehow, this is exactly what has happened in just nine months, and I am still not quite sure how.

Or why there had to be quite so many photographs.

The most embarrassing thing in all this, of course – aside from sporting my own rogues’ gallery in Adver Towers, the endless teasing about what ostentatious fundraising I will do next, and the pathetic inadequacy of anything I say to truly express the extent of my gratitude to all the people who have supported me in all manner of different ways along this journey – is that charity is supposed to be about giving.

Somehow I can’t shake the idea that I have gained so much more than I have given away.

The 160 Appeal hasn’t just changed my life. It’s grabbed it by the short and curlies, given it a good shake, and set it back down again on a different, unimagined road.

That’s why I still find it so humbling when people congratulate me, or tell me how I inspired them to join the gym and start tackling their own demons. Because most of what I have achieved so far is pretty much accidental. If it hadn't been for the strangers who became my first few sponsors for my skydive, I would not have been quite so keen to lose the necessary three stone to take part.

And if it hadn't been for personal trainer Ronny Terry, who staked his professional reputation on helping me shift the pounds in just three months, I doubt I’d have mustered quite enough motivation to come in on target. Taking part in Charlie Speller’s hot yoga class was just another means of increasing my overall activity levels.

And, like when I started running and gradually began to achieve first 5km and then 10m distances, contorting my body into increasingly difficult poses came about incidentally as I refused to give in to defeat.

After inadvertedly signing up to accompany Ronny on his 24-hour walk, continuing to lose weight and increase activity levels was just another means to prepare for the challenge – and ensure I wasn’t going to be the idiot who couldn’t finish what had been started.

Everything I’ve achieved, I achieved accidentally, propelled by the blind fear of disappointing those strangers who’d put their faith in me.

It was through their faith I found faith in myself, and with their support and guidance I remembered how to be brave.

I started accidentally achieving things I had never dreamt of attempting, slowly realising that the only limit to what I am capable of is the boundary of my imagination.

The thing is, I am renowned for having a rather over-active imagination.

My one hope is that I never become truly fearless.

 For the full story, visit Liz's blog at podge2plunge.wordpress.com.