Thank you very much for making a donation to Mencap. The work Mencap do is phenomenal: they are dedicated, patient, professional and they change the lives of people with learning difficulties. If you find learning and communicating straightforward, just imagine if this changed. Life would be so much tougher.

So, let's celebrate having clear faculities and get behind those who aren't so lucky and all the amazing people who support them.

My bit of the cause is to put myself through some extreme mental challenges. This is part to get some sense of what mental challenge really means but also so you can sit at home and be amused by my suffering. For all those that donate I'll send a daily update from the desert...

The Marathon des Sables is pretty tough. 151 miles, 6 days, 52 miles on one stage alone, 40 degrees centigrade (zero at night). I'm not really mad on running, find the English summer oppressive and can't say I'm keen on sand. Did I mention the spiders, the snakes and the scorpions?

Every £ I make will be matched by Macquarie. Now this is an unbeatable offer. You get to help a great cause, your schadenfreude increases in line with with my pain AND...an investment bank pays what you pay.

Please help me to make a big difference. The target is £50,000.

Jasper