The level of care that St Luke's Hospice in Plymouth gave to my Dad and my family in Dad's final days was outstanding. I feel that they are deserving of a bit of hard work on my part to help them raise a small amount of funds, so that others can continue to benefit from their service.

The Eden Project Marathon will be the end of a busy year for me and it is being held on the day of my 39th Birthday. My Dad ran his first marathon when he was 40. His motivation was that this was around the same age that my Granddad had his first stroke and he didn't want the same thing to happen to him. In a tragic twist my Dad was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2014 and passed away at the age of 62 in January 2015. 

My Dad instilled in me a need to be fit and healthy and to enjoy life. This has been a cornerstone of my life since an early age. The Eden Project Marathon this year will be about my 15th race of marathon distance or more. I am not quick, but I do like to have some fun on the way around and I particularly like to slow down and enjoy the view when it is good enough to merit a look. I often run in fancy dress and have raised a pound or two for a number of charities over the last few years.

This year I am actually going to attempt to run fast enough to beat my marathon personal best and hope to set new personal bests at 5k, 10k, 10 mile, half marathon and marathon distance as the year progresses. To do this I have had to eschew my traditional non-aero, uncomfortable fancy dress outfits in favour of something more streamlined. I have decided to run as "X-Bionic Man" and combine the races with a long term test of some X-Bionic running kit. The results of which will be posted on the blog that I run as a hobby www.bikerunswim.co.uk.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Please donate just a pound or two of your hard earned cash to this worthy cause. St Luke's are there for all of us should the worse happen and their staff are genuinely caring and nice people.

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. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.