Hi everyone thanks for taking the time to visit my page. 

I'm a retained Fire Fighter from Ross on Wye and I'm taking on a challenge that I've wanted to do for a long time. This year I will be running the London Marathon 2019. Even better I get to run it and raise money for a charity that means a lot to me, The British Heart Foundation. 

When my first son Jake was born before we were able to bring him home he was rushed up to Birmingham Children's Hospital. This is where we found out that he had a heart condition called Pulmonary Atresia with a right ventricular defect. They also found he had two holes in his heart. This meant that he wasn't getting enough oxygen pumped around his body and he needed major surgery at just a week old to help him survive. After nearly a month in Birmingham Children's Hospital we were finally allowed to take him home. 

When he was ten months old Jake had open heart surgery to replace the valve on his heart that wasn't working properly and have the holes in his heart fixed also. He has had to go through open heart surgery another two times since for valve replacements and loads of other slightly smaller procedures over the year's. He will need it replaced again at some point in the future also. 

Jake is now a healthy, happy, sporty boy who has just started year 8 in high school thanks to the research and support from the British Heart Foundation and the amazing people at Birmingham Children's Hospital. 

I'm raising money for the British Heart Foundation's research and I'd be so grateful for your support. The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly every day hundreds of people lose their lives. It's only thanks to support from people like us that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £24 could pay for two hours of research by an early career scientist, but every pound helps so please give what you can to help me hit my target. Thanks!