I know I'm a bit late setting this page up, two days after finishing the marathon, but a couple of people have asked which charity I was running for, and answering that I wasn't fundraising has ended up feeling even more uncomfortable than asking people to sponsor me for something I would have done for enjoyment anyway, and that I felt I had made insufficient preparation for so that what many see as an achievement was actually a mild disappointment on a personal level (notwithstanding that it was an amazing atmosphere, I'm really glad I did it,  and proud that I managed to push through to the finish and get inside my actual stated, if not inwardly hoped for, predicted time without stopping despite realising very early on that I'd overcooked the first few miles).

So, for anyone who *is* impressed that I beat a bloke wearing a Hull telephone box, and who'd like to make a donation in my honour I'm reopening this JustGiving page for a small charity whose purpose has become increasingly close to my heart.

The main reason I haven't been doing the miles needed to do the marathon full justice, is the time and energy taken by the two little girls we have been  fostering for approaching three years now. 

Entering the fostering profession makes me a  part of 'the care system', but on the periphery of the legal processes of the family justice system. This has made me deeply aware that many of the common narratives around children in care over-simplify the situation. There seems to be a tendency to assume either that taking children into care is simply rescuing them from abusive parents, or that it is the state unjustly 'kidnapping' children, depending on which side you are viewing the situation from. The reality is usually much more complex and nuanced than that, but lack of transparency about the legal process, and the fact that it tends to be only the most dramatic cases that make it into the public eye at all, means that those caught up in the legal process often find it bewildering and opaque, while the wider public, and indeed we Foster Carers, or potential adopters, have little sense of how it operates.

The Transparency Project is a small charity which seeks, in their words, to "explain and discuss family law and family courts in England & Wales, and signpost to useful resources to help people understand the system and the law better. We work towards improving the quality, range and accessibility of information available to the public both in the press and elsewhere."

If you want to know why I think this work is so important and deserving of support, I suggest you read the blog of Annie Bertram, joint project coordinator at the Transparency Project. It's not an easy read, but she has the ability to make heard a perspective that rarely has a public voice, but needs to be heard:

http://survivingsafeguarding.co.uk/2015/04/24/surviving-safeguarding-or-there-and-back-again/

You might also find the 'Two Good Mums' podcast illuminating: https://www.twogoodmums.co.uk/podcast