Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

A few years ago my mum found out she had breast cancer. It rocked us all when we heard. Scary. She’s OK now, thank God. We all love her. You would if you met her. Irish. Funny. Full of life.

 Anyway that whole episode was a few years ago.

 In another chapter of my life Viva was asked to help promote a book written by Genesis, the Manchester-based breast cancer prevention charity. Over that campaign we learned a great deal, made some great friends and worked alongside some wonderful people at Genesis who are grafting hard to make a difference.

So, in 2011, Viva will aim to raise some funds for Genesis. We’ve set the bar at £1,000 and we are hoping you fine people will be able to help us out with some sponsorship.

We are taking part in the Manchester 10k in May. Team Viva is me Tony, Andy, Sharon, Phemmie and Lucie. The latter two are Manchester 10k virgins. They are unwrapping new trainers as we speak. Full of hope.

For me the training starts tonight. I want to beat my time of 56 minutes last year but I worked really hard for that so it won’t be easy. For the record, Andy strolled round in 52 mins for the record after putting in just one training run a week before the event.  Dark horse that one.

I know people get bombarded with requests for help and sponsorship these days and well — if you’re suffering from being asked too often — for that I apologize.

However, we make no apologies for supporting Genesis and raising the profile of  because we know all about the work they do, that Genesis is a wonderful charity. Even if you can’t afford to give it’s worth finding out about them.

 In the meantime. If you see me wobbling by during a training run give me a pip of encouragement. Manchester, here we come.

Cheers for helping

Tony

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So please dig deep and donate now.