On Sunday 13th Apil 2008 Karen & Louise will be taking part in the Flora London Marathon for an amazing charity called "Make a Wish".  Please read on and you will see why they have chosen this special charity.

Louise 's gorgeous nephew, Matthew has been diagnosed with a very rare terminal brain disease.  He is a very special little boy and adored by all who know him.

Make a Wish Foundation are very generously granting Matthew's final wish to take him and his brother with his Mummy and Daddy to the Give Kids the World Village which is in Florida.  They will have a magical week at Disney and will take home with them some beautiful memories for the four of them to treasure.  To them this is priceless.

We would love so very much to raise as much money as we possibly can (our target is at least £3500) as this charity grants special wishes to children who have life threatening illnesses.

Melanie Hall, Matthews mummy and her friend Gary are doing a Parachute Jump in April so if you also want to show them your support please click on

www.justgiving.com/melaniehall1

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor us: Make-A-Wish Foundation UK will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So please sponsor us now!

Many thanks for your support.

Karen & Louise

Week 1

Right we are ready to start training, we have a training schedule and raring to go!  We know we can do the miles if we continue to train as we have done half marathons last year (that was before Christmas!) the fundraising seems more daunting. We have lots of plans for fundraising to get us underway including a Fundraising Day on 8th February at Grangefield School. We'll keep you updated on how we are doing fundraising and our training.

Week 2

Well we have reached week 2 of our training schedule and our fundraising is well underway.  We did our first long run today in training which we secretly enjoyed having not done a long run since our half marathons in the Summer.  Louise has suffered a slight pull at the top of her leg but not one to stop training will be back training on Monday.  Melanie, Matthews mummy, is doing a Parachute Jump with her friend Gary in April which is helping with the fundraising as they have already raised £695 and with our £790 makes a great total of £1485 at the end of week 1.  Even we now think we can do it!

Week 3

Our training is going well - we run 4 times a week, cross train 1 day and 2 rest days. We're really enjoying it!  Our first fundraising event is a Boozy Bingo Evening at Grangefied School on 8 Feb 2008 at 7:30pm - £5 a ticket.  We will be playing Bingo to win chocolates and bottles, there will also be a Raffle and Games.  Bring along friends, a bottle of wine and a plate of food to share.  Tickets are available  from either of us - Karen and Louise or the school secretary.  Our total fundraising at end of week 3 is £1182 and with Melanie and Gary's £1.040 our grand total is now £2,222!!!!!!

Week 4  

Wow! What a week! Our training is going well.  We have had a big fundraising week.  On Friday the school held a Uniform Wish Day and a Cake Sale for the children.  In the evening there was a Boozy Bingo evening. We never knew we could have so much fun at Bingo!  A massive thank you to Grangefield School and particularly Mrs Mitchell for helping us to raise £766!  Our total fundraising along with Melanie and Gary’s £1,487 is now £3,873!  We are doing this run!!!

Week 5

We are training hard and have done our first 15 mile run this week!  That is officially the furthest we have run so far.  People are getting used to seeing our bright lime green tops running along!  Woodmancote School held their Uniform Free Day on Friday and raised over £300, Bishops Cleeve Primary School also held a Uniform Free Day rasing over £350 (total raised to be confirmed).  A big Thank you to all the schools who have supported us in our cause.  We would like to say thank you to Spirax Sarco for their £50 donation.  Melanie and Gary's total fundraising is now £2,574.40 (yes 40p!), Our on-line total this week  is £1,685 and off-line is £866 - giving a grand total £5,125.40p!

Week 6

This has been a week of two halves for training this week.  The beginning of the week had never been so cold.  On Monday it was so cold that Karen came back from running at 6:45am and had 3 massive icicles dangling from her hair!!!! Warren like the new image!  On Tuesday Louise nearly had frostbite on her ankles where they were exposed to the cold!! By the end of the week the weather got milder but training got harder.  Thanks to Karen's mate Lynn for her support (she'll know what I mean!). On the fundraising side thank you to the Abbey National who have donated £150 this week.  We are now looking forward to Kam's Coffee Day on Friday 29th Feb (Kam's events are always worth a visit!). Ask any of us for more details.

Week 7

Wow how many cakes can we all eat in one day?  It seems lots and lots at Kams fantastic Coffee Day with people streaming in from the rain all day!!  Even the teachers at Woodmancote School and babies on the close joined in!!  A massive thank you to Kam who raised approx £200 on the day (total tbc).  The training is now getting hard going and we are feeling tired.  Karen has had to rest more this week and is eager to get back out there in training with Louise.  We will run 18 miles together next week!!  Matthew has now come back from his holiday in Florida so if you would like to hear about his fantastic trip with Make a Wish please log onto Melanie Hall's website link above.  Between us £2893 and Melanie and Gary £3054.40 we now reaching nearly £6,000 fundraising total!!!!!

Week 8

We have finally did it - we have run 18 miles (only another 8 to go!)  Louise says that the 18 miles was hardwork but great satisfaction that have made it! Karen is pleased that her leg is feeling better after all Lynn's hard work! Caroline and Lisa are doing a fantastic job doing a relay on their bikes to help us along.  We really appreciate your support to get us through those hours!  Karen really enojoted Lisa's lasagne as well - you are looking after us!! Promise we will go out to celebrate after this is over!!!!!  Fundraising is doing really well as we have now raised £3198.50 and Melanie and Gary have raised £3124.40 giving a massive £6,322.90!!!!!!

Week 9

Well what a week! Big News - we made the papers - not page 3 but page 17!!!  Louise was pleased that the article mentioned her age as 35 (only just my friend!!!!)  We are doing this run as 36'rs and don't forget it!!!!!  Well it's Race Week so we ran next to the traffic with Caroline and Lisa terrorising the traffic with their buckets!!! At one point we were a mile ahead of them!  They raised £57 on todays run alone!!  Thank girls - watch this space for a picture of Caroline and Lisa terrorising the race traffic - what a possy!!!  We peak next week with our training so more on that next week.  we have some big thank you's this week - for the Toast Sale from Year 4 Grangefield School  - £70 to go on next week!!  Such a smple idea but so popular!!  Thank you to Toby Jenkins for selling Mothers day and Valentines day cards at School and to Abbie Jenkins for doing jobs around the house - I do think Caroline tooki t a bit far making Abbie peel potatos!!!

Fundraising we have now raised £3,433.50 and with Melanie and Gary's £3,304.40 making a whopping £6,737.90!!!!  Well done Girlies!!

Week 10  

Happy Birthday Louise!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Louise - hope you had a good day!!

Well we did it we ran 20 miles and we still had some energy left in ours legs for a bit more!!!!  We have never run this far before so are pleased that we made it but the hot baths at the end were the best ever!!!!! Our training distances get less now as we get closer to the big day. Miriam and Teresa joined us on the bikes this week to keep us company. Hats off to the girls as I joined them today and it is not easy going up Southam Hill when it is trying to snow!!!!

Some thank you's this week - thank you to Rob Smith (Karen's next door neighbour) for his £100 donation,thank you to the bikers - Caroline, Lisa, Teresa, Miriam and Sarah.  We hope they will continue for the last 2 Fridays.  It is a bit like a scene from Rocky instead of Kids running we have cycling mum's!!!  We cannot thank everyone enough and how amazing the amounts are that have been donated.  Fundraising we have now raised £3659.50 and with Melanie and Gary's £3,901 makes a staggering £7560.50!!!. We are now in the last 3 weeks so training tapers off but we would like to make a plea to anyone who still would like to donate/sponsor us for our amazing charity 'Make a Wish'!!!

Week 11 

Well the training is a lot less now we are on the run up to the big day.  12 days 12 hours left to go!!  Karen can tell us to the nearest minute how long left!!!  Both excited and apprehensive I think!! We went out for a run with our gang in the rain again!!!  Melanie has had her girls out with the Make a Wish buckets at Tescos - it is surprising that Bishops Cleeve have anything left to donate but I believe that they raised £892!!!!  We now just need the weather to improve so we don't freeze at the start!!! A bit of rain is good as we have run in Snow and Sleet and it will stop us overheating!!!  Total fundraising from Karen & Louise and Melanie & Gary is now £8,463.35p.  Countdown is now at 11 days 33 minutes 29 secs!!!!

Week 12

7 days to go!!! We have 1 more run to go and then the biggy!!!! We reckon that the other runners will be asking "Don't they ever shut up!" as they run along! We are getting organised we have the taxi organised to get there on Saturday.  Karen is going down on Wednesday to make sure that we are registered via Hamley's, Science Musuem and the Rainforest Cafe!!! (well Karen has to eat carbs!!!!). Louise would like to say thank you for the donation from her hairdresser this week - we know Lou would not have a hair out of place whilst running along!!  Also a big thank you to Louise's uncle for his generous donation. Total fundraising now is a staggering £8833.35!!!! Oh and the final run is now done so we rest till Sunday!!

Karen and Louise have some top tips today.  27 miles is as far as Bishops Cleeve to Michael Wood Services on the M5 and the 38 miles that they have run in 5 days is as far as to Cribbs causeway!!! They have run 341 miles in just 12 weeks which has taken a total of 56 hours and 50 minutes!!  That is the equivalent as Cheltenham to Glasgow (+8miles) or Cheltenham to Brussels!!! Now try that!!

Week 13

Only 2 days to go! Not long now girls but remember that you have done the mountain with all the training and fundraising now enjoy the run back down - this bit is for you two!!! You have done a fantastic job for Make a WIsh for which we are really proud of you both.  You are running it together and you will have a lot of catching up to do having spent a week apart.  We will be following you every step of the way - Good Luck Karen and Louise!!!!!

A fabulous amount of money has been raised for Make a Wish and we really hope that we can achieve £10K. Remember that there is still plenty of time to donate once we have completed the run.

Marathon Day

Congratulations Karen & Louise!!!  You did it!!! Well Done.

Watch this space for more info once the girls have made it home!!!!