Dear friends, colleagues, and extended family.

Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. 

In April I’m planning to run the London Marathon to raise money for CLIC Sargent, the most amazing charity that cares for young people with Cancer. 

Not as well known as the likes of Macmillan or Cancer Research, CLIC Sargent specialises in supporting young people (tiny babies right up to those in their 20s) from the moment they are given the life-changing news of being diagnosed with Cancer. 

They offer a huge range of free services to young people and their families including practical and emotional support, medical advice, financial grants and residential care homes for patients and their families. 

On April 24th I’ll be one of a 400 strong team of CLIC runners puffing around the 26 mile route around London. Our aim is to match the £750,000 raised at last year’s event, so they can keep on providing their support.   

Our donations fund CLIC's team of nurses, social workers and play specialists around the country who help people like 16 year old Francesca come to terms with the social impact of having Cancer and how to cope with the physical effects of her treatment. 

The money also helps to run places like 'Billy's House' in Nottingham where Mum Sara is able to stay for free once a month while her three year old son Quinn receives treatment at the specialist hospital nearby. 

If you need some more motivation, here are a few more examples as to how your money will be used:

**£10 covers the cost of a CLIC Sargent Play Specialist for a day, so that they can help a child prepare for and cope with treatment, by using models, toys and photos to explain what will happen. 

**£25 pays for an hour of a CLIC Sargent Nurse’s time, so that they can coordinate clinical and non-clinical care for children with cancer, to maximise the amount of time they can safely spend at home, and ensure that treatments can be given closer to home where possible. 

**£50 funds a three hour social worker visit soon after diagnosis to help children and their families understand and cope with the emotional, practical and financial effects of cancer, through treatment and beyond. 

CLIC Sargent are a very worthy cause who provide huge emotional and practical support to young patients and their families. They don't have the marketing budgets and staff that other, larger Cancer charities have so they rely on our donations to provide the support. 

If you can donate you'll be helping thousands of children and young people cope with cancer, and helping them get their lives back on track after treatment.

Thank you for taking the time to read. 

CLICK THE DONATE BUTTON PLEASE.

David

ps - I’m aiming to run the route in less than 5 hours, and raise at least£2000 £3,000 £4,000 in the process (with your help). Despite all the training (and the knee pain), it never gets any easier or fun to run that sort of distance (I couldn't run a mile without stopping 18 months ago so I'm far from a pro runner), so please donate if you can.

You can see a great summary of all the great work that CLIC provides here:  http://www.clicsargent.org.uk/annualreport/