Ok here's the plan.

On 23rd May this year I'm going to run the Edinburgh Marathon. Just to confirm that's 26.2 miles of feet pounding the pavement, knee joints cushioning the blow, leg muscles filling with lactic acid, lungs feeling like they're going to burst, enough sweat to fill a pretty big bucket - and that's just the race, not to mention all the training.

So why you might ask am I going to do this?

Well; in addition to hopefully gaining some sense of personal achievement, much more importantly my younger sister Gwen was diagnosed with Crohn's disease last year. Crohn's involves the body's immune system attacking the digestive tract causing inflammation. As well as these primary symptoms, Crohn's can cause secondary symptoms ranging from joint and muscle pain to endocrine complaints affecting the skin and blood. At present, unfortunately there is no known cure for Crohn's, and treatment is therefore restricted to trying to control symtoms and working towards remission. For further information see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crohns.   

For Gwen, Crohn's has meant joint and muscle pain, swelling around her mouth, and many days travelling back and forth to Sheffield to discuss and implement treatment options.

The NACC http://www.nacc.org.uk/content/home.asp provides support and information for people living with Crohns and Collitis and invests £300,000 per year into medical, social and psychological research. Therefore, by running the marathon I'm hoping to raise £500 for the NACC which will go towards improving the treatment and the quality of life of people like Gwen who live with the disease.

In addition to the marathon I'll also be running a few other races (e.g. Leeds Half Marathon) along the way as part of my training, however, I'm going to include these as part of the fundraising target so....

...please give as generously as you can.

 

The biggest of thanks for any donations!

 

Gareth

(P.S. Follow my training progress at http://gjmarathon.blogspot.com)
 

 

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