A favour........

.....Not for me but for 15 disabled boys and 3 disabled girls in Calcutta, India

Kids like Rajesh, who is deaf, lost his family at Christmas in the crowds at Howrah Station, Calcutta, aged about 8 years old. He didn't even know his own name. One of the first things Shuktara did was help him choose one he liked - a symbol of his fresh start.

A family friend started Shuktara in 1999 after he visited India and was profoundly moved by the plight of the disabled street children he met there.

Many of the boys and girls who live at Shuktara were abandoned or orphaned as young children and suffered terrible hardship and discrimination, living on the streets and begging for scraps of food.  Because of their disabilities, they were written off as incapable of learning, developing as individuals or integrating into society. Their personalities and their potential were ignored.

The difference that a few years or even a few months at Shuktara makes is astounding. The boys and girls grow in every sense - physically, in confidence, in skills, in communication. Their personalities blossom, they begin to come to terms with their disabilities and to fulfil their academic potential.

How you can support Shuktara

• £10 will buy food for one day for everyone at Shuktara
• £25 will pay our electricity bill for a month
• £50 will pay a month's school fees for all the children
• £100 will buy new clothes and one outing for all the children

What you're donating for

Over the next few months I'll be running 100k of road races for the charity (plus 500k of training runs).  So far I've run or entered

6th April - Cardiff 5k - completed in 26m 39s
5th May - Bristol 10k - completed in 1h 2m 7s
8th June - Warwick Castle to Kenilworth castle 10k - completed in 1h 32s
6th July - Aberdare 10k - completed in 54m 29s
27th July - BUPA Great Wales Run 10k - completed in 58m 08s
17th August - Merthyr Tydfil 10k - completed in 55m 05s
14th September - Bristol half marathon (21k) - completed in 2h 10m 42s

24k to go!!!

19th October - Cardiff half marathon (21k)