Liz Dando’s octathlon raises £2,051 for Truro’s hospital care

A sea swim before breakfast. A one-mile pool swim, five fitness classes, twelve miles on a bike, and a finish so cold it stole her breath. Liz Dando packed all of it into a single day, and every challenge was for someone she loved.

📷Credit: Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity

An octathlon in memory of Beatriz Miranda

Liz set herself what she called an Octathlon, eight fitness challenges completed back to back in a single day, in support of the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity‘s Butterfly Cornwall Fund. The fund works to improve the way patients and their loved ones spend their final days together, and Liz took it on in memory of her mother, Beatriz Miranda.

Eight challenges, one day

The line-up was relentless. A sea swim opened the day, and from there Liz moved straight into the rest of the eight.

📷Credit: Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity

The swims and the cycle

Twelve miles of cycling and a further one-mile swim in the pool sat either side of the open water swim, with barely a pause to recover between them.

📷Credit: Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity

The classes and gym work

Five separate fitness classes followed, backed up by further sessions in the gym. By this point in the day, most people would have stopped several challenges earlier.

📷Credit: Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity

The ice bath finish

Liz closed the whole thing out with an ice bath plunge, water cold enough that most people wouldn’t get past the first minute.

📷Credit: Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity

A raffle, a daughter and friends who made it happen

Liz didn’t do it alone. She organised a raffle alongside the physical challenge, with her daughter and a group of friends helping to run it and make the day the success it turned out to be.

📷Credit: Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity

Thanking the team behind her mother’s care

Together, the octathlon and the raffle raised an incredible £2,051.50 for the Palliative Care & End of Life Care Team, all in memory of Beatriz. Liz later met with Todd Harris, Clinical Nurse Specialist from the Specialist Palliative & End of Life (SPEOL) Team, to thank him and the wider team for their work, and to hand over what her fundraising had brought in.

What the Butterfly Cornwall Fund does

Thanks to Liz’s fundraising, the Butterfly Cornwall Fund helps the team to:

• Improve patient rooms
• Provide home comforts
• Make special wishes happen
• Help patients and their loved ones spend meaningful time together

The fundraising doesn’t stop with Liz’s day of challenges either. It’s the kind of push that turns a small hospital fund into rooms that feel less clinical, and time that families wouldn’t otherwise get.

📷Credit: Royal Cornwall Hospitals Charity