Virtual London Marathon 2022

Thank you for visiting my GoFundMe page. As I assume you’ve chosen to it’s

because you are interested to find out why at 64, I’ve chosen to run my first ever

marathon and the two charities that I have selected.

The why is simple Why Not. As many people know, I started running during the first

lockdown as a way to raise awareness of The Move For Wellness and to also raise

money so we could support our aims. However, when I started to run, I was really

happy if I could complete a 10K run and the idea of running/walking 42 odd

kilometres would have never crossed my mind.

But with all such things, as I ran, I found I could run further but not always faster, but

speed wasn’t everything but running further was an amazing feeling and last October

I entered into the ballot for the 2022 London Marathon. In January, I ran my first ever

official half Marathon so I was hoping that I would be one of the lucky 47,000 who

were offered a place.

Sadly, it was not to be and instead I decided to enter The Virtual London Marathon.

For those that are not aware this takes place on the same day as The Marathon

except the course I will run is in Hertfordshire & Barnet and not London. Having

never run a marathon and running on my own, this is going to be a tough challenge.

Now to make this more interesting October 2 is also my amazing wife’s birthday and

she has decided that if I’m going to miss her birthday lunch and to support me on the

day, I need to raise between £2,000 - £5,000 which will be split between the

following two charities who support people for whom everyday can be a massive

challenge.

So, who are the charities and why have I selected them?

The first charity is The MS Society: Unfortunately, my brother Martin developed MS

in his early 20’s, ironically, he was a dedicated runner up until his diagnosis. I have

seen how MS has affected Martin and how this condition continues to make his

everyday life, as Martin says “interesting”. Now Martin could have chosen to wallow

in self pity but instead he chose to live life the best way he can which includes being

a recognised blogger on living with MS as well as being a published author. While

there is no known link between MS and family members, both my mother’s sister

Gisela had MS and another cousin, Raymond also has MS. While there is no known

cure for MS, the MS Society is doing some amazing work and every week are

making breakthroughs in the understanding about MS. Obviously once you fully

understand what triggers MS, hopefully it will lead to a way of preventing the body

triggering MS. For more information, please visit https://www.,ssociety.org.uk

The second charity is Campaign Against Living Miserably: CALM is one of the

leading charities that are working with people who feel hopeless and helpless.

Currently 125 people a week take their own lives and CALM offer lifesaving services,

provoking national conversation, and bringing people together to reject living

miserably. CALM began in 1997 when it launched its life-saving helpline and became

a charity in 2006 for more information about CALM please visit

https://www.thecalmzone.netDo you want to join me in making a difference? I'm raising money in aid of Multiple Sclerosis Society and every donation will help. Thank you in advance for your contribution to this cause that means so much to me.

More information about Multiple Sclerosis Society: More than 130,000 people in the UK have MS. The MS Society is here for every one of them, through the highs, lows and everything in between.

There is no cure, but we offer hope for the future by investing millions in research, and help for today through our information, support and campaigning.

Together we are strong enough to stop MS.