UPDATE

My daughter, Katie, and her friends Bethany, Callum, Rachel and Rhiannon walked 36 miles collectively, around Lake Meadows. My friend Andy and I ran the Virgin London Marathon on the 25th of April 2010. Both efforts in aid of Special Effect.

Katie and her friends walked till they could walk no more, chanting "Collecting for charity, give us all your money!" as they attempted 17 laps of our local park. THANK YOU ALL!!

 

Running the marathon for my first time ever time was quite emotional. To be amongst all the fantastic causes, the kind and generous support of the crowds and of course to raise money for Special Effect. My good friend, Andy, even managed to get the charity some fantastic exposure with a live interview on BBC1. My time was 6 hours 7 minutes and 5 seconds. Not fast, but I did beat Little Miss Sunshine! It was a fantastic day. And for those who don't know....

 

Special Effect is a small new charity that makes a huge difference to severely disabled children and adults. Their projects include:

 

A Game for Helen: Bringing accessible video games to children and young adults at the Helen and Douglas House hospice so people of all abilities can play together.

The Stargaze project: "You wake up after an accident. You can't move anything except your eyes. And you can't speak. That's when we can help.". Bringing highly expensive eye-tracker computers to those that most need them.

The Accessible Gamebase: A brand new project hoping to make it easier for disabled people to find games that they can play. This work will also seek to find new ways for people to play and to encourage game publishers to think a bit more about disabled gamers.

 

Please consider sponsoring me. I'm hopeful that I'll reach the £2010 total, which would be amazing. Please don't be scared off sponsoring one pound, because anything is massively appreciated.

 

Training best was: 16 miles (25 km). From Shoeburyness East Beach to Benfleet plus a run up and down "The World's Longest Pleasure Pier". Raced the train back. This was the route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3609299. Felt like I could run more.

 

JustGiving info:

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.