Thanks for visiting my fundraising page for Temwa.

I haven't raised money for a charity since the days of the 'Middle Aged Decathlon' that some of you might remember from the early 90s, when over 4 years we rasied £40,000 for Save the Children Fund, Medecins sans Frontieres, Christian Aid and Leonard Cheshire.  On 2nd November this year I ran the New York marathon for Temwa, which is a Bristol-based organisation that raises funds to implement community-based projects in Malawi.  If you want to find out more flick over to www.temwa.org.

Malawi will always have a very special place in my life as Mary & I met there in 1986 (when she was teaching Latin and I was travelling through Africa in a Land Rover with a couple of friends from Bristol University).  Our daughter Katendi is also named after a girl that Mary taught at Kamuzu Academy.

It was an absolutely fabulous occation - the views and support were amazing; for most of the first half I was carried along on a wave of hi-fiving and shouts from the crowd through Brooklyn.  It got more difficult from about 18 miles and it wasn't so easy to enjoy the last section through Manhattan as my legs began to get very tired.  By the end the relief to finish was huge.  In terms of my time, I wen through the half marathon in 1.47 and the full 26.2 miles in 3.47, which I was delighted with - beating my time in the London marathon from 11 years ago by 70 minutes!  I would whole-heartedly recommend it to anyone who's done the Bristol half - it's way way better.

I personally covered the cost of the entry to the event and all other costs, so 100% of all the monies donated are going direct to Temwa.

So please sponsor me now!  I'd really appreciate it; and of course so would all the Malawians who Temwa work with (and you'll also enter my personal Valhalla).

Thanks

Ben