End2End: A rugby relay endurance event for charity

Lexi Chambers has recently completed an amazing endurance event for charity. Find out more including why she used an everyday wheelchair and her next endurance challenge for World Cup.

I'm Lexi Alyx Chambers. Army veteran, ex NHS nurse, and now I suppose I can be called an endurance athlete!

End2End was a rugby relay. It involved me wheeling my everyday non-sport wheelchair. I carried a signed ball from the Exeter Chiefs women the whole way.

I just used a basic TiLite ZR wheelchair, from John O'Groates all the way to Land's End. There's nothing special about the wheelchair, it's a chair that's basically built for shopping, not sport.

I took the ball the way to Scotland and then carried the ball from club to club all the way down the country, to the last club in Cornwall. I did this to demonstrate the connectivity behind women's rugby and how spectacular these women are.

The event was also about raising money for two incredible charities: the Aaron Lewis Foundation and the Exeter Chiefs foundation.

Using what equipment you have

This event was about showing people what they can do with what equipment they have. You don't need a specialist chair or a sport chair, which cost a phenomenal amount of money, to engage in sport.

If you have a pair of trainers, you can go for a run or a walk, and if you are wheelchair dependent, you have the kit you need already there to engage in sport, so just do what you can with what you have.

I wanted to use an ordinary everyday wheelchair, which I've used for all my events so far. I've been doing events of increasing difficulty over the past 3 years.

I've been wheelchair dependent for just under 4 years. I wanted to choose my everyday chair, because originally, that was the only bit of kit that I had.

It also became clear to me that that's all that most people have access to. I wanted to show people that you don't need specialist kit to engage in sport.

You can still be an endurance athlete, you can still go along to your normal local 5K park run or even just go for a wheel around the town or in your local area.

Anything that gets you out and about is a positive benefit to your health and your lifestyle.

I quite often choose smaller charities to fundraise for, because I believe that they're the ones that need the most help.

The Aaron Lewis Foundation is a phenomenal charity help give veterans like me equipment we would not normally have access to. They also help their within their local area of Essex by providing people with specialist equipment that they don't have access to.

People often think that when you're a veteran, or if you have a disability that you automatically have access to kit that you need. That's not true at all.

It took me 8 months to actually get a normal NHS wheelchair, which was one that I could use on an everyday basis. When it did arrive, it was 4 inches too big for me.

I was told that the reason why was to give me room to grow! There is an automatic assumption is that if you become wheelchair dependent, you'll be sedentary, and put on weight.

Instead, there needs to be education. The biggest muscles that burn the most energy are your legs. If you're no longer able to use those, you need information about what calories to eat and how to exercise to maintain your weight.

Currently you will just get given a bigger chair. There’s an acceptance that you're going to put on weight, which is automatically going to put a strain on your body and lead to unfortunate conditions like type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

Studies have showed that the actual life expectancy for somebody who is wheelchair dependent, is 42 years old. That is shocking.

I wanted to show people that you can still engage in sport, using what kit you have.

These Exeter Chiefs women have given me so much, they're a phenomenal rugby team, as are all the women's Rugby teams around the world.

The Chiefs, in particular, have stood by my side through all of my events. They've been there every step of the way helping out.

I wanted to give something back to them to say thank you for everything that they've done for me. I also hope that it will help the Chiefs with their new bedevaluant fund which has recently been set up to help all present, past and future Chiefs.

The challenges of End2End

This was the biggest challenge that I've ever done. My other events have been day events, so things like marathons or wheeling for 12 hours non-stop around a track.

I've jumped from doing day events into one that took 37 days. It was 36 marathons in 37 days.

One of the biggest difficulties was the isolation that I felt. I had an amazing team behind me and a team at home. The team at home were brilliant, they kept working the whole time to make sure it was a success.

The difficult part for me, was feeling isolated from the actual team that was on the ground. When you're the person that's wheeling at the front you're isolated anyway.

The team, trying to keep me out of the technical side of things, probably unknowingly, isolated me completely. I was completely alone and emotionally that was very difficult.

The hills were very tough. They actually increased in difficulty as I progressed south. I didn’t take an easy route route.

I went through Glencoe mountains, then into the Cumbrian hills into the Mendip Hills and then into the biggest hills in Devon and Cornwall. I went through the hilliest parts of the UK.

That was just the way the route went. I asked my lovely wife, who planned the route, not to tell me what was coming. She did a great job of not telling me, which was wonderful. I prefer not to know.

Looking at it now, everybody could have taken an easier route, but my wife knows me well. She knows that if I had a choice of doing an easy route or a hard one, I would have always picked the hard one.

I don't believe in making things easy for myself and in my mind if I make things harder for myself that will help the charities more because the donations will come in.

Another difficult part of the challenge was getting the nutrition that I needed. It's not always easy getting food on route or when you're staying in hotels.

Unfortunately, I have celiac disease, which makes me very allergic to gluten. So that makes things extra difficult for me trying to get hold of food that I can eat. So when you're having to consume up to 6000 calories a day, it can be quite tricky, but somehow I managed it.

The joys of End2End

There was lots of positive moments. The support that it had all the way from Scotland right the way down to Land's End was absolutely amazing. From the first 10 minutes after I started, there were people beeping their horns and shouting lovely comments out of their cars.

There were lorries that were stopping and shouting things, there was also people running alongside the car and handing money into the car.

It was just incredible and something that I've never experienced.

When I came home and I went to 2 villages called Willand and Cullompton. Unbeknownst to me, there was groups of children from local schools waiting for me. I think the first group was about 200 children. They were all cheering and chanting my name.

I then went a bit further into the next village of Cullompton and there was almost 400 children at the side of the road, all chanting my name.

They'd all done amazing drawings, and it was just the most incredible thing that I've ever seen. I was wheeling along both smiling and crying all at the same time, it was very emotional and definitely the best moment from the challenge.

Visiting rugby club was absolutely amazing. They all welcomed me. The clubs really seemed to get behind the relay.

It didn't matter whether it was a premiership club or a grass roots club, and that was the whole point of it: it shouldn't matter whether you're a big club, a small club. It's all about women's rugby and about that connectivity that you feel within the community.

What’s next?

I’m now focused on the next event which is centered around the women's Rugby World Cup. It is going to be starting on the 22nd of August, which is actually my wedding anniversary, so I feel really sorry for my wife.

I keep doing these events where it tends to be around my wedding anniversary or this year, I actually missed her birthday, which I was really upset about.

A couple of lovely friends made sure that she had a really nice time though. So I'm really pleased about that.

The challenge will be following the trajectory of the whole of the women's Rugby World Cup. I should be able to visit at least 6 out out of the 8 venues.

There's a couple locations that I won't be able to visit just because of the logistics involved and the fact that I would not have enough time to physically wheel in between those venues. However, I want to visit as many as I can.

I'm hoping the RFU can jump on board with the idea. I'm talking to them about it at the moment. I’d like to carry one of the Women's Rugby World Cup balls and get that signed by the captains of each team that I visit. That ball will be auctioned off for their chosen charity.

It won’t be as long or as one of my other events, Jogle, but some of the days are actually going to be further than I travelled on each day.

In Jogle, I travelled an average of marathon a day and that went up to 48 km, which is a marathon plus 6km.

For this World Cup challenge, I will be doing anything up to 60 miles a day, which is about 80 km. That won't be every day, but some of the days are going to be a bit little bit longer than others.

If people want to donate for any challenges, the best thing you can do is head to my website. New donation links will be open as soon as we get into full planning for the next event, which will still be via the same website.

I'm keeping the End2End name for of all the challenges going forward, as we decided that I'm always going to be starting somewhere and finishing somewhere.

I can tell you an exclusive as well: I am hoping to be the first person ever to wheel an everyday wheelchair 5000 km up or down the West Coast of America in 2026. So that's going to be fun.

We are currently looking for anyone who would like to help with either of these challenges.

We are especially in need of media specialists, sports therapists and anyone who can drive a car or winabago in America.

Anyone who has experience of the west coast of america or event planning.

Also any documentary film makers who would like to follow the journey, will have all access to anything they would like.

Just hop over to End2end.org.uk to contact me.

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