Firstly thanks so much for getting this far and taking an interest in this little journey of mine (and Zoe Hallett's!), I hope you can spare a few quid, (just the price of one beer/wine will do, think of your liver chaps!) to support a charity that is extremely close to my heart, The Amy Winehouse Foundation.

Without babbling on too much, I am just going to get to why I am running. In February 2013, I lost a good friend and colleague of mine, Steve Whyte. I worked with Steve several times in 2012 on an anti Drugs play and film called 'Sammy's Room', written, directed and produced by Red Rose Chain in Ipswich as part of a Big Lottery Funded Drugs awareness campaign. I know he wouldn't mind me saying this, because he shared this information with thousands of young people across Suffolk and Essex, Steve had a long history of drug abuse which he had successfully and rather inspirationally managed to beat, and he used his work with Red Rose, and in particular Sammy's Room to selflessly share his experiences in a hope that he could prevent another young person from falling into a similar path.

It was when acting with him on this that I realised what an incredible man, friend, actor, scotsman, craftsman and general good person he was, and his honesty, kindness & generosity, as well as a generally wicked sense of humour, made my experience of the job particularly enjoyable & memorable.

I know I was just one of many whose lives Steve had touched and I know that everyone who had had the pleasure of meeting, knowing and working with Steve were all shocked and devastated at the completely unexpected news of his death. I will never know exactly what happened, but I don't need to, all I know is that I want and need to do something for him, as a token of how much he impacted my life, a tribute to the mark he left on me as a person, and a symbol of the fact that he may be gone but most definitely isn't forgotten.

This is where the running part comes in. Those who know me well will know that I am not a general fan of running, in fact I tried it once 3 years ago and lasted 10 minutes before I was out run by a substantially older man aka OAP and my confidence was shattered! My housemate Zoe, who is a relative pro in comparison, having completed a 5k last year, mentioned in passing that I join her on a 10k, to which I am pretty sure I laughed and continued eating a snack of some description. But after further discussion, I had a thought of doing it for Steve, and suddenly the idea didn't seem so ludicrous. Zoe is kindly asking that any donations for her go to The Amy Winehouse foundation too (Just in case you thought for a second you were on the wrong page or someone had made an embarrassing spelling mistake on the names!) So here we are.

The next decision was which charity to support, because although Steve worked hard himself to educate about the effects of drug misuse, his history with drugs was by no means the defining feature of his life or personality, and I was reluctant to make this all about drugs. But after much thought, research and consultation with some of his closest friends (Thank you Rachel Clarke and Nick Woolgar) I think he would have liked me to support this charity, particularly with it's Schools Resilience Programme (in partnership with Addaction) which aims to do what Sammy's Room so successfully did, but on a larger national scale: targetting vulnerable young people and educating them about the effects of drug and alcohol misuse. The charity focusses on addressing ways to prevent drug and alcohol abuse (through education) rather than rehabilitation, which drew me to it, because as Steve had experienced, once addicted, the road to recovery is an agonizingly difficult one, and unfortunately one that few manage to navigate successfully, making Steve's achievements over the last few years all the more awe inspiring. So that's what your kind donations will go towards.

We are both training hard (I have been in training using a running app, i have never been more intimidated by a phone application, it knows everything!) and a part from a few weeks off due to injury-I have ankles of a 10 year old child apparently-all is going well and we hope to achieve a respectable time, definitely aiming to finish in under an hour.

So if I have successfully persuaded you to part with a small sum of your hard earned cash, I would like to say an enormous heartfelt thank you. All your support means an awful lot. If we raise enough to support a programme which means one vulnerable young person makes an informed decision to say No, then we will have potentially saved a life, and made Steve's legacy even more lasting and powerful.

So Thanks...

Also if you fancy a laugh on the morning of Sunday 30th June, come down to Richmond and watch me and Zoe hobble our way round the 10k. There may even be a picnic after if this British Summer plays fair. Maybe see you there?