Hello all, 

I'm fundraising for the charity Changing Lives by returning to Newcastle to run the Great North Run for the first time in 9 years.

Changing lives are an amazing charity who offer sustainable support to the most vulnerable and marginalised members of society. We need more care and compassion in society and we need more joined up services who offer the breadth of support needed to navigate life's toughest obstacles. Changing Lives offer that support and I'm pleased to be able to help raise funds and awareness for them.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In their own words from http://www.changing-lives.org.uk/about-us/:

Changing Lives is a national, registered charity which provides specialist support services for 6,000 vulnerable people and their families, every month. Through our pioneering and innovative work, we support people to make positive, lasting changes in their lives.

Our accommodation services help people experiencing homelessness, as well as providing longer term housing in our growing range of rental properties. We actively support individuals and their families to recover from addiction, and we reach out in to our communities to engage those at the very edges of society – whether as a result of rough sleeping, suffering from mental health problems or experiencing exploitation and violence.

Our women’s services provide tailored support to help women and girls achieve more – whether through accredited training programmes, confidence building work or niche services for groups such as female offenders and sex workers.

Finally, we provide employment and training opportunities for our clients helping to raise self esteem, increase confidence, and build experience and skills. And we work with others – partner organisations and volunteers – as we deliver our unique services around the country. All with a view to changing lives together.

Changing Lives is supported by our successful social enterprises which include a charity shop, a furniture warehouse and a food re-distribution scheme (Fareshare North East). We also work with a number of partners to deliver our unique services across the country.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My previous attempt(s) at the GNR were generally fuelled by minimal sleep, negligible training, a student diet, and excessive beer consumption, resulting in a rather pathetic set of results:

2008: 2hrs 43 seconds

2007: DNS (officially I ran my PB of 1hr 56min 49s which has stood for 10 years, but in truth I didn't even run - Dave Burne took my spot as I crashed my motorbike the week before and couldn't run - thanks for not setting the PB bar too high Dave : )

This year I've been aiming to break the 1hr 30minute barrier, all was going well until I tore my calf in March. Training has been sporadic since, but with just over 4 weeks to go things are looking up and my run times are coming down.

I appreciate for me, running the GNR may not seem like much of a challenge, but the cause is a very worthy one, and I'm proud to represent the charity. If you are able to help me give a little back it would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Charlie