Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

There's something you should know about me. I suffer from an issue called FOMO. For those of you who have never heard of this abbreviation, it stands for 'fear of missing out'. This issue can be good and bad. This time my FOMO got me into serious trouble. Three of my wonderful friends decided to tell me they were running the London Marathon. I uttered the inevitable....'wow, that sounds amazing... I'd love to do that'. 

So apart from a very severe case of FOMO, why else am I doing this?

Why oh why am I putting myself through this pain? Training through the snow, hail and rain? 

 

I am running this event because I feel I am lucky and privileged to be born and raised in a place where I CAN enter an event like this.  Not everyone can, certainly not the young girls and boys I am raising money for via Interact Worldwide.  I would much rather put myself through 12 weeks of training and a 5-hour, 26 mile run, and temporarily give up my social life, than contend with the same struggles and uncertainty they face.  So I really feel I ought to do something like this, not only because I can, but because when I compare my situation to their situation it makes me realise I am indeed lucky to be able to run the London marathon, and it puts my grumpiness about training into perspective.    

 

Here's a little bit about the Charity - Interact Worldwide - who have given me this Marathon place, in exchange for raising £1700 (YIKES).   

 

In a nutshell:

 

They work hard to bring universal access to family planning, maternal health, sexual and reproductive education, and HIV and AIDS services to the hardest to reach and most vulnerable adolescents across the world...usually in the poorest locations:

- Helping young teenagers in remote areas get access to contraceptives

- Increasing the availability of contraceptives to men and women 

- Giving women the right to a safe birth - including arranging a woman's first ever antenatal visit, and also their first ever post natal visit 

- Increasing condom usage tenfold to prevent HIV infection

- Giving them access to education, information and advice

 

Why do Interact Worldwide need to do this?  Here are a few sobering statistics for you: 

- 16 million adolescents become mothers every year

- 2.5 million have unsafe abortions

- A woman from Africa is 237 times more likely to die from complications in pregnancy than in the UK

- For every woman who dies, 30 more suffer illness or disability

- Pregnancy is a leading cause of death for girls under 18 in rural Zambia

- Each year there are 111 million new cases of curable sexually transmitted infections amongst young people (but many find it hard to get access to treatment)

- In sub-Saharan Africa half of girls marry before 18, missing out on school and economic opportunities

- Gender inequality, sexual violence, religion, and lack of power make it difficult for girls to say no, or negotiate safe sex

- Every 14 seconds a 15-24 year old is infected with HIV

- Over 30 million people are currently living with HIV and AIDS worldwide

- Every second 5 people die because of HIV and AIDS

 

If more girls can stay in education rather than get married, it increases the choicethey have over their lives, and it helps them to break the cycle of poverty.

 

Interact Worldwide help with all of this.  I hope you agree that it's a very worthwhile cause - giving the very poorest people in the world access to this important health aid.  Feel free to take a look for yourself at some of the successful projects they have run - this is their website: www.interactworldwide.org

 

 

Please help me reach my fundraising target

Pretty please with a cherry on top would you make a donation on my justgiving page to help me reach my target of raising £1700.  I would really appreciate any donation you can give. 

 

You're one click away from making a donation here: http://www.justgiving.com/AlexandraKingMarathon

 

Thank you hugely in advance for anything you can give,

 

Love

Samm 

Xxx

 

http://jobs.guardian.co.uk/job/4573766/business-development-manager-sport/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 - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.