Hi, I'm Stuart Crawford and I'm the Store Manager of Bilston 0573 on the Wednesbury region. I was lucky enough to be offered a place by the NSPCC London Marathon 2019 team and there was no way I could turn down the opportunity. Having never run anywhere near the distance of a marathon before, this would be a huge personal challenge for me and a great way to raise money for the NSPCC through our regions fundraising team.

I am a keen runner and have been for some years now. I run lots of races and really enjoy trail running through Cannock Chase (especially at night in the dark!). However, running a marathon is absolutely next level in terms of training, preparation and not just making it up as I go along on the day as I have many times before in half marathons. The race takes place on Sunday 28th April and my 16 week training plan starts on January 7th. I have to run three times a week, anywhere between 6 and 20 miles each time, and then two cross training sessions a week (though I may skip one as an average day at Lidl is pretty good cross training!). Trying to fit all this training in around work, life, my three year old son and everything in between is going to be a huge challenge personally, but for a great cause and worth all the work.

And what does all this work support? The NSPCC fight for changes in the law to support children, they run helplines, organise child protection, offer support for new parents and babies, push to make the internet safer for children, working to tackle supply and demand of child sexual abuse images, sexting, supporting children giving evidence in court and so much more.
We have some fundraising work planned in at store and district level, but any sponsorship offline, online or by text would be greatly appreciated and would really support the crucial work of the NSPCC.