The Brain Charity

Fundraising challenges can be about more than pushing yourself physically; they can also be a way to discover what you’re capable of. For Jenni, taking on a 180-mile cycle from London to Paris is a personal challenge, a chance to raise awareness of neurological conditions and an opportunity to champion neurodivergence in the workplace.

After experiencing post-concussion syndrome and receiving a late autism diagnosis, she has developed an even stronger understanding of how differently people’s brains can work.

A lifelong love of wildlife

Growing up, Jenni developed a lifelong passion for animals. Today, that passion is at the heart of her work at Burton Reid Associates, where she works with everything from bats and badgers to reptiles and their habitats.

Jenni explained:

“I’ve always really, really loved animals. I was brought up in the New Forest and had lots of access to wildlife. That passion has really stayed with me.”

For Jenni, ecology is about more than a career.

“From my perspective, it’s about legacy and wanting to leave behind positive changes in the world.”

A difficult few months

Jenni recalled:

“I’ve never heard of it. No one else had ever heard of it. What on earth is it? The condition had a profound impact on my life. I experienced nausea and fatigue, dizziness and nausea, and found that I had almost no capacity to think or work. As someone running my own business, having to step away was incredibly difficult.”

Jenni is a director of ecology consultancy Burton Reid Associates in South Devon part of Ecology Group, the leading specialist ecological and environmental consultancy. She has spent much of her career working with wildlife. For around three months, Jenni had to stop working almost completely and couldn’t drive because she had lost her spatial awareness.

Jenni said:

“My brain just felt like it was completely empty. It was a very, very strange experience.”

The effects continued for around a year, gradually improving as Jenni learned how to manage her energy. The experience gave her a much deeper understanding of what it can be like to live with a neurological condition that other people may not be able to see.

Understanding her neurodivergent brain

Jenni’s experience became even more personal this year when she received an autism diagnosis in adulthood.

Looking back at her childhood, she can now see many of the challenges she experienced at school in a completely different light.

Jenni explained:

“I look back on my school reports, and they were all, ‘could do better if she listened more, if she stopped talking and didn’t interrupt all the time.'”

At the time, there was little understanding of neurodivergence, particularly in girls and women. Jenni feels this had a negative impact on her learning outcomes at school.

Jenni said:

“I went on to work in catering, restaurants and pubs before deciding in my late twenties to pursue education. I came out of that university course having gone in with no qualifications whatsoever. I came out with a 2:1 in a science degree. I worked my socks off, cried myself to sleep many a night because I couldn’t do the work, but I did it.”

Receiving her autism diagnosis gave Jenni a new perspective on those experiences.

“It was a really great day when I had the diagnosis because it made me go, ‘Oh my God, all of these things.’ It instantly allowed me to let go of that ‘fix’ mentality and go, there is a reason for this, and there is nothing to be fixed.”

That new understanding has also shaped how Jenni leads her business and approaches inclusion in the workplace.

“If you’ve got something that you’re absolutely passionate about and really, really amazing at, let’s let you focus on that. That’s what’s going to make people come alive and feel really great about what they do.”

For Jenni, different ways of thinking should be recognised as a strength.

“There’s a whole diversity of ways that our brains think, and that’s really incredible.”

Finding The Brain Charity

Jenni said:

“I found it quite difficult to find a really good fit. But what I liked about The Brain Charity was this dual thing of recognising that there’s a lot of buzz around neurodivergence at the moment, but there are so many other neurological conditions that need to have the light shone on them as well.”

Her own experience of post-concussion syndrome made that particularly meaningful.

Taking on London to Paris

Jenni’s fundraising challenge came through Women in Property, whose South West region had started organising “sweat working” – combining networking with physical challenges.

Jenni said:

“I’m in my mid-fifties now, and I really wanted a clear goal to help motivate me to get fit again. Around 50 women will cycle approximately 180 miles over three days, starting in Blackheath in London, travelling to Newhaven and crossing to France before continuing towards Paris. I’m slightly terrified, I have to admit.”

When Jenni started training, she could manage around two miles on her bike. She has now built up to around 50 miles and cycles to work when she can, covering around seven miles each way. The next big challenge is a coast-to-coast cycle in Devon in the next few weeks before the big ride at the end of September.

But she has discovered that the biggest challenge isn’t necessarily physical.

She explained:

“I went into it thinking, ‘Oh, it’s physical training.’ But actually, I would say almost a bigger part of that is psychological.”

The training has challenged some of Jenni’s doubts about what she can achieve, and recently she has noticed a shift in her mindset.

“My ‘I can’t, I can’t, I can’t’ is beginning to change to ‘I can, I can, I can’, which has been amazing.”

For Jenni, that change in mindset is already an achievement.

A challenge with a bigger purpose

Jenni will take on the London-to-Paris ride from 24 to 27 September 2026, cycling alongside about 50 other women from Women in Property.

For her, the challenge represents more than reaching Paris. It is a chance to raise money for people affected by neurological conditions, to increase understanding of neurodivergence, and to put everything she has learned about herself into practice.

Her journey has taken her from no formal qualifications when she left school, to graduating with a science degree, building her own business and embracing a new understanding of how her brain works.

Now, with around 180 miles between London and Paris, Jenni is ready to find out just how far she can go.