Updated on Apr 17th 2012 at 2:41 PM from the JustGiving API

Just need those promised donations to come in, total is this + 50p per £1 pledge from @pmcretail, all for @adoptionuk

Updated on Apr 17th 2012 at 2:34 PM from the JustGiving API

Just need those promised donations to come in, total includes this plus the 50p per £ pledge from PMC :)

Updated on Apr 11th 2012 at 11:12 PM from the JustGiving API

Nearly half way to our target!

New website launched - www.aukmarathon.co.uk

Follow us on Twitter @aukmarathon

Find us on Facebook facebook.com/aukmarathon.co.uk

It's all booked - no turning back now!! We fly out Thursday 1st November, run on Sunday 4th, and fly back Tuesday 6th.

NOVEMBER 4TH 2012!! In the process of booking flights and accomodation. It's all starting to become very real that we are actually going run a marathon....in NEW YORK!! Need to smash our £5000 target.....

Updated on Oct 13th 2011 at 10:52 PM from the JustGiving API

Just ran 10 miles!! My furthest run ever, I can't believe it, hopefully this'll boost the donations especially with the new text service

Updated on Sep 26th 2011 at 4:32 PM from the JustGiving API

Text donations now available. Text AEUJ92 and the amount e.g. £10 to 70070. "AEUJ92 £10" to 70070

Updated on Aug 26th 2011 at 11:30 AM from the JustGiving API

Found out we can get text donations now - awesome! (I hope!)

Hi All,

I’ve been a bit quiet with the updates recently due to lots of things happening and people asking for money for various things but as we’re around pay day I’d like to ask again for your support for a very good cause.

Caroline and I are now well over 100 miles into our training schedule and can now run for 6 miles without stopping! We try on most weeks to do 3 runs and a long walk in a week and increase the distance every few weeks, and we hope to be ready for a half marathon training event soon (or maybe just 10K!).

We are so happy to have raised such a good amount so far, much of which is credit to Paul Mason’s support with the 50p for every £1 pledge. With the money raised from many of you, and the support from Paul Mason we are now at a fantastic £1,995.44. But we don’t want to stop there, our target is £5000 and we know that we can make it, we just need your help.

We are also in talks with Adoption UK to potentially setup a text donation service which we hope will boost donations further as we will get the number printed on our T-shirts whilst we are training.

For now, please donate what you can in order to help a great charity do great things to help the vast numbers of children and future parents out there who don’t have the support and healthy environment that many of us probably take for granted.

Please visit their website http://www.adoptionuk.org/ and see all the brilliant things that these people do.

Why are children adopted in the UK?
There are around 4,000 children waiting to be adopted in the UK at any one time. They tend to be children already in the care system, often living with foster families, because they have been removed from their birth parents for different reasons. Very few babies are ‘given up’ by their parents for adoption.
Children waiting to be adopted come from a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and have a wide range of different needs. Many are school age, some have brothers and sisters who need to be placed with them, and they often have experiences of abuse, neglect and early instability, resulting in challenging behaviour.
Some children may have special needs, most will require additional support to help them come to terms with the changes in their lives.
Adopting a child with a medical condition, disability or special needs
Many children with a range of needs or medical conditions need adoptive families. As well as providing a loving family for them, these children require parents who will be able to meet their additional needs and act as ‘advocates’ to ensure they get the services they need.
These can be children with conditions such as cerebral palsy or Down’s syndrome, or those such as Foetal Alcohol Syndrome, which relate to why they were taken into care in the first place.
Who can adopt?
Adoption agencies responsible for placing children with their new families look for adopters from all walks of life. Gender, marital status, disability and employment status will not automatically exclude you from adopting a child. What matters most is your ability to provide a permanent, caring and stable home, to meet the needs of a child from the care system.
Marital Status
Single people, married couples, cohabiting couples and same-sex couples can all adopt. Sexuality is not a barrier to adoption.

Updated on May 16th 2011 at 1:07 PM from the JustGiving API

£565 raised at the PMC 10th anniversary party with the iPhone competition.

Updated on May 4th 2011 at 1:19 PM from the JustGiving API

Had a poor couple of weeks with injuries, illness, and holiday. Must get back into it. Moving on to 4 mile runs, 3 times a week, plus a long walk at the weekend now.

Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

If you know either of us you will know that we don't do running! And the prospect of having to run for 26.2 miles sends a chill down our spines!

We have set ourselves 3 challenges:

1. Raise at least £5000 for Adoption UK

2. Run the marathon in under 5 hours - hopefully under 4hrs 30

3. Run the marathon together (literally!) - we will run whilst attached by rope :)

We will have to put in a lot of training, and work together as a team so that we run at the same pace throughout. This will be no easy task with me being 6'4" and Caroline being 5'1"!!!

To add to the challenge, with the race being in New York, we will fly out on the Friday night, recover from jet lag on the Saturday whilst finding out where the start line is, then we race on the Sunday, and fly home Sunday night - definately no holiday!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0gxOH2OTn0 - Marathon inspirational video

http://www.adoptionuk.org/ - Adoption UK website

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1UvxxYIv3U - and hopefully this won't be us!!

Our target is £5000 over the course of the next 18 months up to race day,  and we will continue to raise money after the event. We have until December 2011 to raise a minimum of £2500 to show our committment to the charity for them to help get us out there to the start line.

Through PMC (www.pmcretail.com) we have come to understand how important Adoption UK is, and over the years various events have been undertaken to raise money for the charity. This will be the biggest one yet and we hope you will support us and help motivate our training.

Adoption UK is a great charity and we both enjoy challenging ourselves to help raise money for good causes. This is a huge challenge and we really hope friends, family and many others will support us whilst we put in a lot of hours training over the next 18 months in preparation for the event. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity so we will do everything we possibly can to make it happen, to raise the money for Adoption UK, and to make it a successful race too.

The marathon will be in November 2012, we have until December 2011 to raise the minimum amount required. Please support us in our quest, every little donation will help.

"Adoption UK was established in 1971 and is the only national self-help charity run by and for adoptive parents and foster carers, offering support before, during and after adoption. Whether you are considering adoption, going through the process or established as an adoptive family, Adoption UK will support and encourage you."

A donation from you will help us reach our target and help Adoption UK massively. We both know there are lots of charity events around these days but we promise that if you help support the fundraising, we will put all our efforts into the training and keep you up to date with our progress as we run in various events over the next few months to test our progression.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’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’s the most efficient way to donate - we raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.

Our beginners training plans starts this week - http://www.runnersworld.ltd.uk/firsttime.htm