(the date/distance echo will not continue or I'll break myself 😆)
This is my 2nd
year sweating
I’m sweating to take a stand against discrimination and create real change
I raised $2,500
last year
Why I’m Sweating with Pride
I'm taking on Sweat with Pride this June! 💦🌈
Right now, schools, workplaces, and even doctors’ offices aren’t safe for many in our community—and it’s putting lives at risk. LGBTQIA+ Kiwis face higher rates of mental illness, suicide, and STIs like syphilis, mpox, and HIV.
So, I'm fighting discrimination with perspiration—exercising 21 minutes every day in June to raise money for life-changing Rainbow support services.
This cause means the world to me, and I’d be SO grateful if you could chip in to help me reach my goal. Every dollar makes a difference.
Thank you so much for your support! ❤️
My Fundraising
Impact
Achieved
In Progress
$100
Provides vital resources to support Rainbow communities
Achieved
In Progress
$300
Free, confidential mental health support for Rainbow Kiwis
Achieved
In Progress
$500
Ensures more people can access life-changing health services without cost barriers
Achieved
In Progress
$1,000
Fund an educational workshop to create safer, more inclusive spaces
Achieved
In Progress
$2,500
Provides a full day of community outreach, to improve wellbeing and reduce stigma on a large scale
💖 I’m $1,250 away from my next impact milestone. Will you help me reach it?
Track My
Sweat
My sweat goal was 60 minutes per day in June
3,223 minutes completed
1,800 minutes goal
Stats reflect challenge period (1–30 June) only
My Fundraising
Ranking
I’m #57 out of 4,091 Sweaty Bettys
57
Seagoatscreams
Raised
$1,250
My Blog
Updates
Sweat With Pride Day 10
Today, because I'm still me, I had to run 10.10km.
10's a light lemony-yellow number to me, so today's shoes worked extra. (I did also try pretty hard for a 5.10min per km average, but was foiled at the last second by footpath roadworks that had changed since yesterday).
We're 33.33% of the way through the month, and thanks to all of you, and especially my latest generous sponsor (still the biggest heart in Ireland) Rhona, I'm only $169 away from a round $1000. That's enough to fund an entire workshop about creating queer-inclusive spaces. And that? Is the kind of tangible life-saving you can feel through time with both hands.Thank you, every single one of you, for all the kinds of support.
Today's running playlist song of the day was The Midnight, 'Summer's Ending Soon' :
no matter where you go / there you are again /
find a way to make some peace / with how the story ends
Body was feeling it a bit for those last 2km of 14km, but it was so so beautiful in the crispy autumn morning.
Sweat With Pride Day 6:
Howly storm settled overnight, but it was still really wet at 8ish when we were considering getting out there. But! By the time I'd settled Mum with her vat of porridge and menu of puzzles, autumn sun was striving, and it was cool and calm and glorious in all the ways my running likes best (pics to follow cos this post is being ornery about them).
After this morning's run, I'm at almost 1/3 of my promised minutes for the month. If I hit it super early, I'll raise my promise. Cos... it's how we roll 💙
Extra huge thanks to latest kind donors, Val, Elise, and Anon (fssssh). I keep thinking about how it's so often people with their own struggles who bring it and bring it for causes like this. How that's pure human-good power, in the face of the other kind that's trying to steer us all into the dark for their own greed.
Today's running playlist song of the day is 'No Time for Love Like Now' (Michael Stipe & Big Red Machine) -
'Whatever waiting means in this new place /
I am waiting for you'
Day 3 of Sweat With Pride, and the weather was... silky.
My set-up-Mum-early-with-brekkie-and-puzzles plan (so I had enough space for a longer run) was a huge success. Thank you to everyone supporting me, in every way you are, and every way you have through this long, dark year.
This year, Pride is even more important to me. As a young person, I was there when a generation of bright, irreplaceable souls were
being lost to AIDS, when homosexual law reform happened, when civil unions, then gay marriage, were legalised, and more recently - when our then-government voted UNANIMOUSLY for Births Deaths & Marriages reform, to give trans people the right to self-identify.
Now, this whole damn world, and our government, are punching down on the rainbow community, especially trans people, harder and more openly than I've seen since I was a child. Every day, I see hundreds of people online openly laughing at murdered teenagers - because they're not cis, not straight. The UK and the US pass dozens of nonsensical, cruel anti-trans laws PER DAY, every day. And Cate and I continue an exhausting fight against harrassment through the courts.
I'm running against the notion that any of this is remotely ok. I'm running for the 2026 we all believed we would see, the upwards trajectory for acceptance of the beautiful range of human differences - and it isn't this.
I'm leaving the link to my fundraiser, which donates to the Burnett Foundation doing the mahi on the front lines through their support for orgs like Outline, Rainbow Youth, and HIV and preventative health education. And I'm leaving links to sign a petition against a horrendous 'wedge' bill dressing up cruelty as 'definition' in Aotearoa's laws, and one to make a submission against it.
Support, fight, love, all of these things harder than ever my friends 💗
https://www.sweatwithpride.com/fundraisers/ankhspice/swp/
E Tū E Kī: They Don’t Speak for Us - Block the Definition of Woman Bill | OurActionStation https://share.google/RBTiqzYFI5NT24WC8
Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill Submission - New Zealand Parliament https://share.google/apC6WLq6nD4sFu5yi
My Generous
Sponsors
$150
Jono Baddiley (and Vic!)
$150
Sweaty Besties
Keep on sweating! Arohanui, 2degrees, AA Insurance, ASB, and Auckland Council.
$100
Anonymous
Good on you for taking this on when you have so much on your plate! Rooting for you xxx
$68
Ruth
Hang in there!
$68
Susan
Proud of you!
$68
Elise Wei
$59
Jack Byrne
I loved your words today e hoa. "Gonna make it, friends. We're all gonna make it, somehow, in the end."
$50
Rhona Greene
Go Ankh! You are amazing xxx
$48
Lisa
Love you, bro. 😘
$46
Jane
Go Ankh! *cheering noises*
$46
Lesley Curwen
Bless you for all your proactive kindness to the world
$40
Helen Schmieg
$36
Bee
Ankh, I hope you are doing well my friend. Thank you for raising funds to protect all of our community. Bee
$36
Marg
Much love to you for all your sweaty Pride 🩵
$30
Val Little
It's always nice to be doing this challenge with you and Cait. Go strong 💪
$30
Flo and Summer
Sending strength and wags from here ❤️
$30
Ankh Spice
$25
Bryon Vierling
$25
Caren Wilton
Kia kaha e hoa, you're doing amazingly xx
$20
Alison Jones
Thank you for doing this, for everyone, for all the beauty in humanity, for the vast rainbow of possibilities of selves and the potential in that range of light.
$20
Anja Meyer
Love you.
$20
Anonymous
Fsssssh
$15
Diana Yukich
$15
Sweaty Besties
Keep on sweating! Arohanui, 2degrees, AA Insurance, ASB, and Auckland Council.
$15
Spangle
Big love to you and your mum. X
$15
Marg
🩵
$10
Sue
Love the photos and updates. Well done for running all the steps.
$5
Debs Kelland
🌻🌈🌸💙🐚🐐☀️🪩
$5
Supporters of Burnett Foundation Aotearoa
Keep on sweating! Arohanui to supporters of Burnett Foundation
$5
Karen
🫂
Go Anklebiter!