Dear Friend,

Thanks for taking the time out to visit my JustGiving page and read my story.

Two years ago, in July 2007 I ran my first 10K. This was my first attempt at prolonged exercise after 25 years of near-zero physical activity. The same year I went on to complete a 5K run and 15K 'walk'. Thrilled by my feet's ability to carry me this far, I decided to push myself a bit more - last year I completed the Ericsson Run-to-the-Beat Half Marathon in Greenwich. On 12 July 2009 I completed my third 10K. And now I am training for my biggest goal so far- completing the Berlin Marathon!

And the one thing that truly gives meaning to these challenges - doing it for a cause! I am running the marathon to raise money for Pratham.

, 's largest educational NGO, was started by UNICEF in 1994 with a mission to erase illiteracy amongst 's 100 million under-privileged children. Pratham has already reached 33 million children since the launch of its 'Read India' Campaign. Pratham's educational programs are efficiently run by mobilising over 450,000 volunteers who currently work in more than half of 's 600,000 villages. For information on Pratham please visit http://www.pratham.org/.

With your help, the Read India Program will be achieved and new initiatives focused on continued education and employment can be initiated. So please dig deep and donate now.

And even if for some reason you are not able to donate, do leave a few kind words of encouragement- these will see me through the challenging task ahead of me.

Sincerely,

Ramya