Hello! Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I'm running the Great Manchester Run this May for The Stroke Association - a charity close to my heart as my wife (still strange saying that - we only got married recently!) lost her Dad to a stroke a few years ago. If I can do this one thing to raise some money and maybe help save someone's life then this is 100% worth it so please donate if you can.

Just to show how serious a condition a stroke is here is a bit of info from The Stroke Association website: "Stroke is the third largest cause of death in the United Kingdom after heart disease and all cancers and causes a greater range of disabilities than any other condition. Each year in England and Wales over 130,000 people have a stroke - this is equivalent to someone having a stroke every five minutes".

**UPDATE** Whilst out doing my normal ~5k run I decided to see how long I could keep going for and ended up running just over 10k! Don't know how good an idea it was in the long run as I have now got a little pain in my knees but ah well! I'll take it easy over the next few weeks now I know I can run the full distance without stopping, and then just enjoy the run on the 16th! **UPDATE**

As for me, I started 'training' in February only being able to run for about a minute without gasping and wheezing - i'm slightly better than that now but still keeping up with the training! My sister and I took part in the Sport Relief Mile (3 miles for us!) on Sunday 21st March which went really well, we ended up walking part of it but sprinted over the line in around 37 minutes! :) I've still got a few weeks to improve my endurance so hopefully no walking in May!

 

Thanks for taking the time to visit my site!

Ben

 

Here's the science bit:

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So please dig deep and donate now.