Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.
The time has come when I feel I should run a marathon! Being a PE teacher I should be setting an example, so all you students out there who moan and grumble about laps of the St Ignatious field, think about doing over 100 of them without stopping! Since retiring from Rugby I have done very little fitness wise and am enjoying doing something, anything again.
I have been training since July '09 and have built up my mileage from scratch. I am currently able to run 14 miles without rest.(Jan 2010).
The Charity I am raising money for is for the pupils of a school in Dodoma, Tanzania. These children are AIDS orphans who need funding just to go to school. £300 is enough money to send one pupil to school for a year. My school (St Ignatius College) has been raising money for the children there for a number of years running various events including Cycle rides and X-Factor, the latter of which saw me doing an excellent Simon Cowell, albeit with a slightly lower waistline. We regularly send out old library books and equipment for them to use to build up their school resources. Their school football kit, as an example, is a set of Stephen Gerrard Liverpool home strips, recently supplied by our scouse priest (come on the reds!).
All the money we have raised to date has gone towards initially helping to build the school and more recently has supplied resources and funding for the teachers and pupils. Every year we send a representation of pupils from our sixth form in Enfield over to Tanzania to help work with the children and support any special projects. Unfailingly, those pupils lucky enough to make the trip, descibe it as a life changing experience as they are deeply moved by both the poverty they encounter but also the gratefulness and love shown by the young boys and girls who continue to benefit from our schools' charitable work. Please take a look at the photo's which will give you some idea of what the school, pupils and neighbourhood are like. Without our money many of these children would have no education at all as there is no state funded education programme in Tanzania. As well as being very poor, many AIDS orphans suffer from mental and/or physical disabilities who would have no chance of any education at all. The education that they receive whilst at this school gives them access to a life that they previosuly could only have dreamed of.
My target is to raise a minimum of £1500. So, in the words of a prominent food chain "Every Little Helps," I would be really grateful for any donations that you can spare, thus making my suffering worth while! More importantly it will have a real impact on the lives of these special young children that we have met and been inspired by.
Rest assured that while you are having your Sunday morning lie in, I am already pounding the streets of Hertfordshire for the cause determined to help these kids have a better future with your help.
On a final note their are two other PE teachers running the event and although I am the oldest by seven years, the competitive streak in me is alive and well so I will be doing all I can to come first out of the three of us, assuming my bones will hold up!! Wish me luck!!
Watch this space as I hope to update it with fascinating tales of running lots of miles on miserable mornings, I might even treat you to a video or two!!
Thanks for your support
Cliff, Mr Roche, Sir (delete as applicable)
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