Story
<p><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Last April, I went to London to watch my husband run the marathon. Even as a spectator, I found it really emotional and incredibly inspiring to watch him and the other thousands of runners battle mile after mile through the streets of London. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of you will know that I am not exactly a runner and the thought of running a marathon had never even crossed my mind – in fact, if you had told me a year ago that I would be writing this now I would have thought you were crazy! But having completed my first half marathon last September, I thought it really is now or never. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">So my training kicked off after Christmas and, amongst other things, I have been doing one long run every weekend, slowly increasing the miles, from 8 - 14.5, even when it was snowing and -4 outside! </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Places for the London marathon are like gold dust but I have been lucky enough to gain a place to run for Crimestoppers - an independent charity helping to find criminals and fight crime by offering an anonymous and secure method to pass information to the police. </span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">Last year, Crimestoppers received 90,868 calls with useful information resulting in:</span></p>
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<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; text-align: justify; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">8,264 criminals were arrested and charged</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; text-align: justify; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">£25,339,693 worth of illegal drugs were seized</span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-indent: -18pt; text-align: justify; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span style="font-size: 9pt; font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt &amp;quot;Times New Roman&amp;quot;;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-size: 9pt;">£3,155,704 worth of stolen goods were recovered</span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">My fundraising target is £1,200. I would be extremely grateful if you would consider sponsoring me as all money raised from the London Marathon will help continue to fund the charity. I really do promise to do the very best I can on the day and make you all proud. </span></p>
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