Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page, and don't forget to leave a donation before you go.
I actually never intended to run the Great North Run for a charity, and signed up for it completely on my own. In fact it wasn't until I was prodded by my children about how it would be selfish if I did all the training and put in the effort just for my personal satisfaction, that I decided they were right and I would have to find a cause.
Having said that I was over 16 stone and couldn't run for a bus when I first had the idea but apparently "Gary's Lager Fund" isn't a registered charity.
The choice of charity has been a difficult one in many respects, I've had help from loads of family and friends in choosing it and I've been through the usual problem of everyone in this situation, where you just want the money kindly donated by family and friends to do the most good possible. I know Africa is generally seen as a bottomless pit for aid, and I have often watched events on the news which makes you think the population seems to flip, flop between starvation or feeling well enough to kill each other and brutalise the more vulnerable sections of the population. I also know I feel a very strong pull to support a UK charity as there are so many worthy causes here.
At the end of the day however I've gone for the Kibera In Need (KIN) charity. I'm sure that almost everyone who watched the Comic Relief documentry on this slum will have been touched not only by the tragedy and grinding poverty of the people who live there, but also by their determination to keep on trying to make a life, for themselves and even more, for their children.
Having made the choice of who to help, the decision then was, how to help them. For this I chose Kiberia In Need, because their efforts are focussed completely on those slums, the money isn't going into a huge pot that might end up paying warlords or corrupt politicians and the charity doesn't have massive staff costs and executives to pay. Additionally one of their projects is they have a fund which gives loans to local people to set up businesses, very small amounts by our standards but enough over there to give people a chance to support themselves and provide for their families.
I'm sure anyone who knows me will also know that as a hard bitten cynical old Northerner asking family and friends for money is as far outside my comfort zone as putting on a pair of running shoes and struggling through a half marathon. But before you click off on to the next site and get on with your life please stop for just a second, realise how privileged we all are, even through times when it doesn't feel like it and donate what you can to give these people a little help to help themselves.
Thank you for reading my page and for taking the time and giving your hard earned money to help this cause.
