*** Update 29th April ***

Last Sunday (22/4), I successfully completed the Virgin London Marathon in 3hrs 43mins 7secs.  If you're interested you can see confirmation, including my splits, here, and photo evidence here (using my bib number 2633).

Today I finished the Greater Manchester Marathon in horrendous wind and rain in 3hrs 29mins 30secs.  My timing details can be found here and photo evidence here.

 

The Challenge - Many people could run a marathon but not many people could run marathons on consecutive weekends.  That is the challenge I have set myself; Virgin London Marathon 22 April, Greater Manchester Marathon 29 April.

 

The Charity - St Ann’s Hospice cares and helps around 3,000 patients and their families every year who are affected by cancer, by delivering care that is special and unique to each individual person. St Ann’s Hospice has to raise £16,000 every day to provide this care, of which over 92p in every £1 raised is spent on patient care and the services that support it.

 

Why Them? - When my wife Sharon left hospital at the end of August 2011 having had part of her right kidney removed due to Kidney Cancer, I thought that was the end of it and we could all return to normal.  How wrong could I be!!!

 

Whilst she was given the all clear a few weeks later, Sharon hadn't even begun to deal with the emotional fallout of her diagnosis. Although given the all clear from the operation Sharon still needs to go back for six monthly scans and has been told Kidney Cancer can just re-appear at anytime even years down the line.

 

St Ann's Hospice has been fantastic in providing Sharon with professional support, including reiki, physio and counselling with anxiety experts, to deal will all these issues.  All the support is given freely through the charity and we feel that as Sharon has benefitted from this wonderful charity we would dearly love to raise some money for the charity, to benefit other people in need in future.

  

We are aware that charitable donations are requested a lot these days and it is especially hard in the current tough economic times, but hopefully you will recognise the magnitude of the challenge I have set myself, so Sharon and I will greatly appreciate any donation, no matter how large or small, but more importantly so will the staff and patients at St Ann's Hospice. 

 

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.