“I need a challenge,” I said to myself last summer. 

Soon after, I bought myself a pair of trainers and threw myself into the rather painful exercise of carrying my 15-stone frame around the streets of Maidstone in a bid to get fit enough to take part in a marathon race.

I needn’t have bothered. A few weeks after I started running, we found out Katie was pregnant; the need to challenge myself now seems rather unnecessary and I suspect that however hard I find training for a marathon, nothing will be as tough as what is to follow this May.

Anyway, I’m doing it. 

On Sunday 18 April 2010, I will start the Brighton marathon along with 15,000 other people. Whether I finish it is anyone’s guess. But I want you all to support me by donating some cash to a charity very close to my heart: Cystic Fibrosis.

This is a proper challenge. This isn’t sitting in a bath of baked beans or doing a couple of laps of Hyde Park. This is 26 miles. This is a marathon. This is pain. 

I’ve done so little exercise since my glittering football career was bought to a premature end by my bad back. So, as I prepare for what is already turning out to be the most physically demanding thing I’ve ever done in my life, your support will make it that much easier. 

Please dip your hands into your wallets and purses and donate.

Thank you,

Tom.