Hello! Michal here...

On 7 March 2010 I completed the Paris Half Marathon in a time of 1 hour 59 minutes. I'm pretty sure that's a European record.

The charity I was running for was Health Partnership Nepal. For anyone wishing to sponsor my efforts retrospectively, please do so via Just Giving. My friend Jess is HPN's Chair, and in case you were wondering how hard this charity work really is, I invite you to read the following extract from a recent email update Jess sent me...

"Just got back from Medical Camp 1 in Kharanitar for past 10 days. Was pretty good. We saw over 1500 patients, collected 150 surgical cases. These camps always come with interesting experiences especially with the village leaders, who are usually a bit corrupt, it was overcrowded and we got pushed around by little old ladies, at times so hectic, but in the end rewarding. 

We slept on concrete floor and had one skanky toilet between the 25 of us which often got blocked so a colleague of mine had to produce a poo-stick. It was gross. We had some sort of hose pipe as a shower outside and we had to make a screen to cover us from the locals when we had a wash."

You can see that this requires considerable effort and sacrifice, and people in these remote areas are very grateful for the fact that someone shows an interest in their well-being. So please give generously!