Update: 24th May 2010. WE DID IT! On the hottest day of the year so far, we all managed to survive the heat and complete the course. Team times ranged from 4 hours 12 to 5 hours 21 mins. Well done to everyone. The overall total so far raised for all 16 runners is £10,980.  You can still donate here- every penny counts. Thank you to everyone who has supported a great team effort for a great cause.

Since the stillbirth of our precious first baby Gregor at 39 weeks of pregnancy and the subsequent births of our 2 daughters who are now adorable 4 and 2 year olds, we have supported PiggyBankKids and the Jennifer Brown Research Fund which funds important work into pregnancy problems and neo-natal research.

We have also persuaded friends, neighbours and family to join us and now total 16 runners who will make up 4 relay teams to compete in the Edinburgh marathon on 23rd May. One team consists of friends, (including 2 consultant psychiatrists and a respiratory specialist to keep us sane/still breathing whilst training!). One team is made up of staff from our daughter’s nursery and another team consists of old Uni friends from Aberdeen. My team consists of my husband Iain, Dr Rhona Hughes, Lead Obstetrician at Simpson Maternity Centre, Edinburgh and  Professor Jane Norman, Professor of Maternal and Fetal Health at The University of Edinburgh. Jane and Rhona are also members of the advisory board for the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory

 It is particularly lovely for us that Rhona who delivered my youngest daughter and who looks after hundreds of pregnant women and their babies each year is running alongside us.

Medical advances and research take a long time to progress and require significant funding.  If you are a mother, grandmother, dad, granddad or have nieces or nephews who hopefully arrived into this world without complication, I would ask you if you would consider supporting us in our marathon efforts. As we run the miles, we will of course be thinking of our 2 daughters waiting to cheer with Granny to welcome us home and also of our son who no doubt would have been a cheeky 7 year now - we will also be hoping that our daughters’ generation will reap the benefits of medical research of this generation so that fewer families will have to face the pain of losing part of their precious future. We often feel that we have inherited all those extra years from our son and we have got to make every day count. As Sir Roger Bannister said “"Running is the greatest metaphor for life, because you get out of it what you put into it"

Please support our marathon efforts.