As you are probably aware, Japan was struck by a massive earthquake on 11th March, 2011. With my wife being Japanese and having lived in Japan for 5 years, I know first-hand how devastating this has been. The dramatic pictures of the tsunami destroying houses, cars and roads will have brought lots of attention to this disaster, but I wanted to do my bit to help.

I'm running the Edinburgh Marathon at the end of May this year. I've run a couple of marathons before, when I was living in Japan. It is a brutal thing to do, but I was always touched by the great support that Japanese spectators gave to all the competitors and now I'd like to give something back.

Shelterbox is a British charity that provides emergency boxes for relief from disasters like this. As you are probably aware, this first few days are critical and they have responded amazingly by getting the boxes on planes already.

I really appreciate your help and I'll do my best to run a good time. Below is the blurb about JustGiving, but it's basically just saying it's all secure and so on. I've given to others before, so reckon you can trust them! In addition, my company will match any donations (up to £500 I think...) so please be generous!

Chris

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.