<p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;">THANK YOU for taking time to visit my justgiving page!&nbsp;</p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><em style="text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">My months of running up and down the killer hills in Leeds is because I want to raise money to support Downside Up, a charity based in Moscow, which works across the whole of Russia to improve the lives of children with Down&rsquo;s syndrome. This fantastic charity provides support and advice for families raising children with Down&rsquo;s syndrome and works towards changing social attitudes to it.</span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Having grown up with two brothers who have Down&rsquo;s syndrome, I am grateful on their behalf for the education and upbringing they had, which has contributed to them both developing into thriving individuals who bring a massive amount of love to our family and anyone who knows them. I am so appreciative that they were born in a country where attitudes towards disability are so progressive, and where prejudice and discrimination are the exception rather than the rule. </span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: 36.0pt;"><em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Sadly, the situation in Russia is very different. During a trip to Russia last year, I was privileged to meet some children with Down&rsquo;s syndrome, but it was sad that I met them in a children&rsquo;s home, where they had lived since their parents abandoned them at birth. 85% of babies born with Down&rsquo;s syndrome in Russia are abandoned by their parents at birth, simply because of old-fashioned prejudices and preconceptions that lead them to believe that these children have no hope of a future. It is this situation that Downside Up is working to change, and I am totally behind everything they do!</span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Please help me help Downside Up provide children with Down&rsquo;s syndrome in Russia with the sort of life my brothers, and others like them, enjoy, and show that love definitely doesn&rsquo;t count chromosomes! </span></em></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Thank you in advance for anything you can give!</span></em></p> </p>