Thanks for taking the time to visit my London Marathon JustGiving page. 

This will be my first (and probably last!) marathon so I want to raise as much money as I can for Ambitious about Autism. This is a fantastic charity which works to improve the services available for children and young people with autism and increase awareness and understanding of the condition which affects more than 1% of school age children in the UK. 

Autism is a lifelong developmental disability which affects the way a person communicates and how they experience the world around them.  Because it is a spectrum disorder, people with autism are highly individual in their needs and preferences.  Some are able to live independently whilst others will need support in many areas.  With support, individuals on the spectrum can achieve amazing things and, in particular, early intervention has been shown to greatly improve the quality of life of individuals.  Every year, through the work of amazing people such as Uta Frith at UCL and Simon Baron-Cohen at Cambridge we understand more and more about autism but there is much more that can be done to help those on the spectrum and their families and carers.  For example, over 50% of teachers in schools in England have not been trained to teach and support children and young people with autism and only 15% of adults with autism are in paid work.  £25 could fund one hour of outreach to support children with autism in mainstream early education settings whilst £150 can fund the assessment of a child under 5 with complex needs, enabling them to get the right support as early as possible.

Training for the marathon has been really hard so please help me through these last few weeks by sponsoring me and spurring me on for those 26 miles!  Remember to donate through Gift Aid if you can so that we can raise even more money.

Thanks to Eynsham Roadrunners for my place and huge thanks to my training buddies Kate ("I think the path is this way...") and super therapist Denise (Body Line Therapy) for keeping me going.

And, of course, big thanks to Bruce, Ellen and Niamh, not least for never being disheartened by the answer to "did you win?".........