Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. I have finally plucked up the courage to run my first ever half marathon which is raising money for the Sussex Beacon a charity that cares for men and women living with HIV/AIDS related illnesses.

I am also raising money for WaterAid which is an organisation aiming to provide safe water, effective sanitation and hygiene education to the world’s poorest people. Here are some frightening statistics about the lack of clean water and its impact on people around the world:

- The average person in the developing world uses 10 litres of water every day for their drinking, washing and cooking; this compares with 200 litres for the average European and 400 for the average American!

- 884 million people in the world do not have access to safe water. This is roughly one in eight of the world's population.

- 2.5 billion people in the world do not have access to adequate sanitation, this is almost two fifths of the world's population.

- 1.4 million children die every year from diarrhoea caused by unclean water and poor sanitation - 4,000 child deaths a day or one child every 20 seconds. This equates to 160 infant school classrooms lost every single day to an entirely preventable public health crisis.

- Diarrhoea which is linked to sanitation problems, kills more children every year than AIDS, malaria and measles combined

- The integrated approach of providing water, sanitation and hygiene reduces the number of deaths caused by diarrhoeal diseases by an average of 65%.

- The weight of water that women in and carry on their heads is commonly 20kg, the same as the average airport luggage allowance

- Households in rural spend an average of 26% of their time fetching water, and it is generally women who are burdened with the task

- For every £1 invested in water and sanitation, £8 is returned in increased productivity

 

Given the above statistics any efforts in delivering safe clean water will have an enormous impact. 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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thank you in advance for your donation and keep your fingers crossed that my knees hold up for the 13mile run....