<p>Hello everyone; thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.</p> <p>Together with my friend Amy I've decided to take on a challenge this year.&nbsp; So on 6th November&nbsp;I'll be running my first ever marathon in&nbsp;New York.&nbsp; As some of you will know this will be just over&nbsp;a year since&nbsp;having double&nbsp;hernia surgery so this represents quite a challenge for me&nbsp;and I'm having to balance the training to make sure they don't try and make an unwelcome&nbsp;return.&nbsp;</p> <p>As well as taking on the personal challenge I've decided to raise money for a charity called Passing it On.&nbsp; This is a small charity which aims to improve educational opportunities for children in Africa by building and running schools.&nbsp;&nbsp;Running challenges are a big part of Passing it On's fundraising activities and this is epitomised through the growing popularity of their heroes run where&nbsp;each year they try and establish a new world record for the number of people taking part in a race dressed as superheroes.&nbsp;<a href="http://www.heroesrun.org.uk/">www.heroesrun.org.uk</a></p> <p>My fantastic flatmate Mark is the current chairman&nbsp;of the Trustees and having promised to do the heroes run&nbsp;with him for the last two years and been unable to I definitely owe him this one.&nbsp;</p> <p>As well as this motivator two&nbsp;great friends headed to work for&nbsp;the Foreign Office and Department for International Development&nbsp;in Africa&nbsp;earlier this year and a third,&nbsp;my&nbsp;running partner, will be joining them there&nbsp;too shorlty after the race. By&nbsp;trying to raise some&nbsp;money for a charity&nbsp;that focuses on African projects&nbsp;hopefully I can help them out in some way too in the work that they're doing in that most challenging of continents.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>I and Passing it On would be really grateful for any help and support you can offer so please dig deep and donate now.</p> <p>Thank very much indeed.</p> <p>Damian</p> <p>&nbsp;Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving &ndash; they&rsquo;ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they&rsquo;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&rsquo;s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.</p>