Shortly before Roseanne Cameron, 23, passed away last February, one of her last wishes was to see her mother and brother get healthy.

Now her mother, Rosemarie Cameron and brother, Ivan, are trying to fulfill that wish by taking part in this year's Argus Challenge.

The Argus Challenge helps people in the community get active. The programme is split into walkers and runners. Walkers aim for the Catlin End-to-End and runners aim for the Bermuda Marathon Derby, both in May.

The Argus Challenge encourages and supports persons at all levels of fitness in their quest to improve their health.

Over the next couple of months, The Royal Gazette will be following the progress of child care provider Mrs. Cameron, a walker, and florist Caroline Dyer, a runner.

"We were doing exercise for about a year when my daughter took sick," said Mrs. Cameron. "We were all overweight. When she passed last year I stopped exercising for about a year."

Roseanne Cameron died from complications related to diabetes. Her mother is borderline diabetic.

"She told us last year, just before Christmas that she was signing us up for the Argus Challenge," said Mrs. Cameron. "I said 'Okay, fine. I know my son and I needed to exercise'."

Her goal is to lose about 100 lbs and in order to reach this, she needs to resist her weaknesses: diet soda and take-out fried chicken.

"I have cut down on that," she said. "I am trying to get my son and I to eat healthy."

She now has fruit and a low-sugar cereal for breakfast, and in the evening she tries to eat her supper earlier so she has more time to work it off. "I am doing good," she said. "It was hard at first."

Now she puts the cost of a soda or bag of junk food in her piggy bank for everytime she resists having it. "At the end of the year I will see how much money I spent on junk food," she said.

She is being coached by Andy Cann, but also exercises with other people from her church and regularly goes to the National Stadium to walk. She said it was sometimes hard to go to Saturday morning training sessions when she would rather sleep in.

"The first time I went to the Arboretum for training, it was hard for me," she said. "At first, you are not used to it. There, they have ten different stations set up. At each station you stop for ten minutes and do the exercises on the board."

But now, it is getting easier. "I can walk around it four times now," she said. "When I first started walking I had pain in my legs and my back. After continual walking the pain starts to ease off."

One of her obstacles is asthma and allergies. Her goal is to simply feel better.

"When I achieve my goal, I hope that I won't be as tired when I am walking," she said. "I get tired real fast. Once I start to lose the weight, I will start to feel a lot better."

Walkers in the Argus Challenge have the opportunity to attend a series of training sessions facilitated by the Bermuda Physiotherapy Association. They are also encouraged to take part in events organised by the Walking Club of Bermuda as part of their training.

When it came to running races, Caroline Dyer had always been the one cheering in the wings.

This year she decided she was tired of sidelining it; she wanted a piece of the action.

"I was always thinking, I wish I could do that," said Mrs. Dyer who works as a florist with Flowers by GiMi.

She put off taking part in the Argus Challenge for a year. "This time around, I decided to give it a shot. I don't know why this year and not last year."

One of the requirements for the running programme was that participants be able to walk half a mile at the start. This suited Mrs. Dyer, because she was already walking two or three miles, two or three times a week, before she signed up for the Argus Challenge.

"I thought this was a good way to step it up and get some more exercise," said Mrs. Dyer.

The running programme includes coaches, training sessions called 'power hours', and information sessions on topics such as nutrition, footware and clothing.

"The power hours really gets you going and feeling motivated," she said. "Mind you, it kills me afterward. My trainer is Yves Paul. It never gets easier, because as you get better, he makes it harder.

"The trainer knows that by this time we should be able to run six miles, so he is trying to build up our endurance."

She ducked out of the first race she signed up to run. "I have never been sporty," she said. "I used to do yoga. The first race I entered was the Butterfield & Vallis 5K and I totally chickened out at the last minute.

"If I had had a partner, maybe they would have encouraged me to do it. I got very nervous."

But last week she overcame her fear and took part in the Lindo's to Lindo's 10K with 324 runners.

"That is the first run I have done and it was really good," she said. "I was pleased I finished. I wasn't trying to time it. I was near the back."

One of her challenges has been training to run with two small children, Zoe, seven, and Joel, four.

"My husband, Kent, and my family have been very encouraging," she said. "He makes sure he comes home so I can go out running. I wouldn't be able to do it without him."

She didn't know if she had lost weight, but she thought she had toned up.

"I have more muscle in my legs for sure," she said. " You can see little muscles popping up in my legs. So that is good."

Her current average is 10.5 minutes per mile, and her goal is to stay at that. "I would like to run the half marathon in two hours and 20 minutes,' she said.