Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page and to read about me and my children.  If you know us, you'll probably realise why I am raising money for the Hampshire Autistic Society; if you don't - well, I have personal experience of autism - I live with it every day - in our case, it's Asperger's Syndrome. 

You've probably heard of autism, but not Asperger's Syndrome.  I'd never heard of it until a few years ago, when one of my children was diagnosed with the condition.  It was a very confusing time - lots to understand, lots to find out and lots to do -  but in the weeks and months that followed the diagnosis, I had an incredible amount of help and support from the Hampshire Autistic Society.  I had always wanted to say "Thank you" and now I can.

Again, if you know me, you'll know that I've always enjoyed sports - so, for me, taking up running was not too difficult!  I raised some money for the Hampshire Autistic Society last year, so when they offered me the chance of taking part in the Great South Run I decided to take up the offer and try to raise as much money as I can.  They've asked me to raise over £150, which, with your help, I hope I can achieve.

I train 6 days a week - I run on 3 or 4 days and spend time cross-training on the other days.  At my age, I need a rest day, so do make sure that I have 1 day off each week!   I even took my running gear away to Spain this summer, running along the beach at 7am to avoid the heat.  So, as you can see, I am taking this all seriously!

I ran the New Forest Half Marathon at the end of September - my first one ever.   Now I'm concentrating on the Great South Run.  I really enjoy the running and will carry on after I've done the GSR (I've already got a place in the Gosport Half Marathon in November).  This time, though, it won't be for fundraising, it will be just for fun!

Thanks for reading this, If you'd like to donate to the Hampshire Autistic Society, then I'd be really pleased if you could make a donation using this page.  I've left the details that JustGiving provide, so that you can read and hopefully trust sufficiently to make your donation.

Thanks again, and if you've got any comments, feel free to post them.  I'm hoping to get some photos taken (so you might even get to see me in all my running gear and glory!)  and uploaded soon.

Finally, a few thanks - Karen at Full Potential (fullpotential.co.uk) for providing my weekly training plans and keeping me hard at it, Team Newbies 2 and my fellow Nifties at Running World forum for for friendship, support and comments, kind or otherwise!  Mum for "child sitting" while we were away, allowing me to run at some ungodly hour in the morning.  And finally, the two most important people in my life - B and J - for wielding the spatula (to understand this, you need to watch "Run, Fatboy, Run!), for keeping me going around the last lap of a local 10k, but most of all, for being themselves! 

CJ

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