As some of you will be aware, at the end of July 2009, one of my closest friends passed away after a very short battle against cancer. And, while the loss of such an inspirational person was, and continues to be, extremely distressing for those of us that knew and loved Margaret, the feeling of utter helplessness during and after this desperately sad time has been overwhelmingly suffocating.
 
I kept on thinking about what Margaret would have done and realised without doubt she would have just gone out and made a difference, and I knew then I needed to do something HUGE in her honour.
 
Which is why I now find myself in the totally unprecedented position of asking you all to support and sponsor me when I take part in the Robin Hood half marathon on September 12th this year!! Yep, you read that right, A HALF MARATHON. And seeing those words in front of me for the first time has made me go a little hysterical if I am honest. 
 
To put some context around just HOW big a deal this is for me, let me just share the following with you: Taking the stairs to the second floor at work leaves me in need of an oxygen tank and the only exercise I do currently is walking my dog, and even then I use the term ‘exercise’ loosley: Take last night for instance, while Georgie and I were actually out for over an hour, I spent over 40 minutes of it standing in a field talking to another dog walker while the 2 dogs ran around like lunatics! (Although in my head I convinced myself that I had actually had a full hour of exercise also!) 

The only person who would be more out of their comfort zone than me running any part of a marathon is a Polish plumber being asked to perform a double lobotamy in the dark with chopsticks – this is simply beyond compare for me!!!!!
 
So, please, please, please, please, please sponsor me.  I know times are difficult at the moment, and I know lots of you run regularly and give to charity yourselves, but if you are able to spare even £1, then it is £1 towards curing an illness that far, far too many of us have been or will be affected by throughout our lives.

Thank you.

Audra

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