Once again, I am donning my trainers and abusing my dodgy knee by running 10K in order to raise money for the National Amyloidosis Centre at the Royal Free Hospital. As most of your already know, Cardiac Amyloidosis is - in what would have been his own words! - what finished my dad off.

Amyloidosis is a rare and (at the moment) incurable disease that refers to a variety of conditions in which amyloid proteins are abnormally deposited in organs and/or tissues causing disease. A protein is amyloid if, due to an alteration in its secondary structure, it takes on a particular insoluble form, called the beta-pleated sheet.

To find out more about the NAC and Amyloidosis, go to:

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/medicine/amyloidosis/nac/
http://www.amyloidosis.org/ 

So, I intend to seek retribution on this nasty disease by running some sort of race every year and raising lots of money for the National Amyloidosis Centre to help fund their research to find a cure for it. Due to its rarity it is a little-known and thus under-funded cause which really needs your support to help facilitate research and advancements in treatment.

As the NAC doesn't have it's own Just Giving page, donations will go through the Royal Free Hampstead Charitable Trust and be automatically diverted to the NAC's fund (Professor Philip Hawkins, Fund No 24). Using this page to donate means that the NAC will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So please, get your credit cards (or chequebooks!) out and give as much as possible, then I won't need to nag you...

Thanks!