I feel very honoured to have been given the opportunity to run the London Marathon representing my employer Credit Suisse and of course raising money for the NSPCC. Additionally I am the only CS Swiss employee participating this year, and that makes me very proud indeed! I have always wanted to run this marathon but it has now come about much sooner than planned, as it’s not easy preparing for a marathon (especially one requiring international travel) with twin toddlers, one of whom doesn’t sleep at night...

Running became a huge passion of mine 4 years ago. At the ripe old age of 38, and weighing 90 kgs (198 lbs), I no longer felt very good about myself and decided that I needed to change something. In the meantime, I’ve gone from doing no sport at all to running over 100 kms per week over 5-6 training sessions. I’ve also cut out alcohol (even including the much loved beer in the bathtub every evening, and despite all the lovely old bottles of wine in my cellar...) and am now 20 kgs (44 lbs) lighter, with a resting heart rate as low as 34 beats per minute.

I’ve run 3 full marathons to-date. If it hadn’t been for my family (and the lengthy family-planning leading us to our twins) I would have already run many more. But as much as I love running and am very ambitious, my wife of 20 years and children always come first. I still always try to find a way to reconcile family and running, so am currently getting up at 5am every morning (if the "babies" aren’t already awake by then and my wife doesn’t need me...) so as to go running before work or before my family wakes up at the weekend (the highlight then being to wake them up with hot fresh croissants!).

I’ve been reluctant to commit to a time in London because sometimes family constraints really do get in the way (sleepless nights...) but - in the interest of this fundraising effort - I will commit... I'm going to give all that I can to reach my personal 3 hour target! It’s going to be a real battle. My best time is 3h04 (April 2012, Zurich)  - even though I gave it all that I could - and my most recent time was 3h22 (October 2015, Lucerne)... Under 2% of marathon finishers manage to finish in less than 3 hours. Let’s see if I can be among them this time!!!

I am passionate about supporting this charity, particularly now that I have children of my own and realise just how lucky they are to have such a good start in life. Every £ raised will help to improve the lives of children who are so much less fortunate... Thank you in advance for your donation, however little, it all counts to making a real difference!

If you are also a supporter of this initiative/cause, please share on your Facebook/Twitter pages. Even just 5 GBP, 5 EURO or 5 USD raised will enable the NSPCC to reach another child. Thank you!