I DID IT! I completed my first ever 10k run (with a sore knee) in 66 mins 35 secs. Had great support there, including from Holly and her Mum and Auntie. It was great to finally meet Holly! (see photo)

Thanks to all for your donations. You can carry on donating on line if you like as the money will go to LATCH.

I'd like to take the opportunity to wish Holly all the best for the future. You seem like a complete star to me and I hope you continue to be so strong in the face of your health issues - you can see from all the comments on the donations that people think the world of you and are inspired by your strength.

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Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I'd been struggling to pick my charity to raise money for - there are so many worthy causes out there, but I've settled on LATCH - the Welsh Children's Cancer Charity - Holly, daughter of Karen, a friend of my wife (Andrea) has been having lots of problems having recently been diagnosed with a brain tumour in recent months and LATCH has already been a great help. I just thought I'd do my bit to help and to spur me on during the run (and the training). Please give generously! I originally set my fund-raising target at £250 - this now seems quite modest and my aim is now to blow that target out of the water!

This is Holly's story:

Holly is 13 yrs old and goes to Ysgol Plasmawr, Cardiff, her most recent school report brought home 13 grade A's.
 
She has an astrocytomo in her brain, although we don't yet know if it benign or malignant. Because of it's position the tumour can never be removed by surgery.  A month ago she had a reservoir inserted to drain and reduce pressure, along with a biopsy which proved inconclusive so she was due to have another one (biopsy) yesterday.  Unfortunately, after a really good initial recovery, she got an infection at the end of last week and was very poorly so the biopsy has been postponed and the reservoir was removed by further surgery yesterday.  We now have to wait for a course of anti-biotics to kick in, clear the infection and let the professionals think again! 
 
That's about all I can tell you for the moment medically speaking.  The other angle of course is Holly's attitude to the whole ordeal which has been completely positive!  She takes every piece of 'bad' news on the chin and is such an inspiration! She's not gonna let this beat her and has a smile everyday no matter what!  Holly is a member of Maindy Flyers swimming team and has been going since she was about 3yrs old; she has also taken part in the Marie Curie Swimathon a couple of times, the first year she organised for her and 4 others from her swim club to do a group swim, and raised a few hundred pound and this year she did it on her own, swimming 100 lengths and raised over £100 - this was before she even knew she had anything wrong with herself.  She also in the UWIC trampolining club, but don't think she will be bouncing again for some time!!

See pictures of Holly just before diagnosis and after her first operation.

Thanks to Karen, Holly's Mum, for sending this through on 28/07/2009. Please dig deep to help LATCH to help people like Holly and Karen.

For more information on LATCH visit http://www.latchwales.org/

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now!

Just revised my target to £500 as my initial £250 target was in danger of being passed after about three days.

10 days in and my £500 target has almost been reached. I'm afraid I've moved the goalposts again (up to £750) as I don't want people not to give if they think I've met my target. The reality is that my original estimates have been blown out of the water. Thanks to everybody for their generosity and for all the good luck messages to me, and more importantly to Holly.

Update 19/08/2009: I've now upped my target to £1,000 and I won't increase it again! I'll be so stunned if I make it up to £1,000, but with your generosity I think I can do it. That will be 10p raised per metre I run! Incredible!!!

Adam x