It is now becoming customary to start my plea for charitable donations by re-capping on my very valid and vaguely manly excuses for whatever challenge I am taking on being far tougher than it needs to be.  It's worth saying, before I sound too soft, that I took a year off fund raising last year as I became an Ironman which is actually quite hard.  Last time out in 2010 when raising money for the Anaphylaxis Campaign I broke my shoulder a few weeks before taking on three long open water swims; this time around I have developed some truly disgusting ailments that have hampered my preparation for the London Marathon, of which more later.

However, before the whingeing commences let me tell you a story.  At the tail end of last year I was involved in a charity jailbreak for the Make a Wish Foundation.  Having spent some time finding out about it, meeting the volunteers and seeing the work they do I knew that I would have to raise money for them this year.  The Make a Wish Foundation is a charity with a single purpose – they grant magical wishes to children and young people aged 3-17 fighting life-threatening conditions.  For many families the Make-A-Wish memory can be the last happy memory they have of their child having fun in a magical world, surrounded by family and friends – rather than memories of days and weeks of painful treatments and hospitalisation. The memory of the wish may be of their child laughing and enjoying being a princess or zoo keeper for the day or meeting a favourite celebrity. In years to come, the family can look back and remember that special time.  I have chosen the target that I want to raise very deliberately as this is what it costs to grant one wish for one child.  I would love to do more but, please help me experience granting a wish for at least one child.

Anyway this year I am taking on two iconic and exclusive events that I have managed to fluke my way in to.  Firstly, on April 22 I did the London Marathon and on June 10 I will Escape from Alcatraz.  You will have to read my blog to get the details (and the photos if you have a strong stomach) but my training for the London Marathon was  hampered by a really grotty 4 week lung infection (the unkind would call it man flu or “a cough”), projectile vomiting, two toes that I thought might need amputated and a painful shin injury caused by falling off my stationery bike.   This year will hurt.  For sure.  A lot.

Next up, and with the added morbid excitement of beggar all training, is the Escape from Alcatraz.  But as anyone who has been to San Francisco knows the Bay smells of walrus or sea lion pee.  Personally, I think if you discount the frigid waters, the killer currents and the sharks that is the real reason that no-one escaped from the Rock. 

Find out how I got on in London, how my final days of preparation to escape the Rock go and if I survive that I promise there will be more events, blogging, pain and humiliation.

Now, time for the hard sell on two levels - rational and emotional.  Lets start rationally.  I don’t really know how much the Daily Mail costs but if you buy it you know for sure that it will be full of tosh.  So my first plea to you is save money on the Mail and read my blog instead and send me the money that you save to grant a child’s wish.  If that rational argument doesn’t work for you then how about the emotional?  Think for a second, about my poor wee Rory.  If he could talk yet, and he was asked why his daddy smelled of walrus pee wouldn’t it be great if he could say that his daddy did it to raise money for the kids rather than just did it for fun??

It’s a great cause that touches so many.  Please support as generously as you can manage and save Rory from thinking his dad likes smelling of walrus pee.

You can read my blog, share my pain, learn interesting things and (I am a realist and I know why people read it!) laugh at my indignities by clicking on this paragraph.

Please feel free to send the link to anyone I may have missed or anyone who you think would like to support the Make a Wish Foundation.