As you may know, I do something for charity every two to three years and it’s time for my next challenge. 

I am going to run in the Oxford half-marathon on 13th October  to raise money for HealthProm, a small UK charity supporting international communities to ensure their vulnerable children have a better chance of making it into adulthood. My friend, Tanya, is one of the Directors of this charity and she will run in Oxford together with her husband, Anton.   

HealthProm is involved in many important projects and you can find out more about their work here: https://www.healthprom.org.  Three projects resonated with me for personal reasons.  First, HealthProm runs inclusive education programs for disabled children in Russia, including in the city of Krasnoyarsk where I come from.  These programs achieve a positive cultural shift towards integration of the disabled children into the mainstream society.  Second, HealthProm supports a children’s hospice in Belarus, a place I visited several years ago and supported via their UK Friends.  With HeathProm’s support the specialists of the hospice can share their expertise in providing paediatric palliative care with colleagues worldwide.  The third project I was impressed with is located in Afghanistan and focuses on improving maternal and infant health.  HealthProm is putting in place community initiatives where local people can support young mothers and babies to have a better start in life.  Having recently read Factfulness by Hans Rosling I became aware that a reduction in childhood mortality rates is the answer to our planet’s overpopulation problem and this small charity is doing something globally important...  I tried to be brief but I hope I gave you enough reasons of why I am supporting HealthProm’s work. 

Could you please support me by donating here. My fund-raising target is £250.

Finally, having attempted a half-marathon in St Alban’s last year, I know my limits. As I previously WALKED some of the distance, my personal challenge this year is to RUN all 13 miles. Fingers crossed!