Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As some of you may know my father in law Ron passed away suddenly on the 2nd of December 2014 in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham following a very short brave battle with a heart condition. I was able to be there with him, Lisa, her mum and sisters in the critical care unit and it is a day that will always stay with me

In the weeks following Ron's passing I have spent a lot of time thinking about my own life and health and the ignorance I have shown towards it for many years. This has lead me to make a decision to change my lifestyle and do something about my weight and shed some of the excess!

It may seem like an odd thing to ask for sponsorship for but it is for 2 reasons, primarily because Ron was a great supporter of the British Heart Foundation donating money regularly for many years, and secondly to give me motivation to carry on when I have bad days and feel like eating something I shouldn't! I am hoping that the support and sponsorship of my friends and family will help me keep on the straight and narrow! I have set the target high and I am hoping to do some fund raising events throughout the year to boost the total.

So how will this work? Well I have set the year of 2015 as my challenge and I my aim is to loose as much weight as possible, I have weighed myself and got a printout on the 03/01/2015 and the final weigh in will be at the 2015 new years eve party at Stockton FC (31/12/2015!!) where I will know the total I have lost and total raised.

Now comes the scary part for me, publically admitting my weight. This is something that I have never done and never really spoken about even with close family. But here goes, on my start weigh in I am 25 stones and 13 pounds (164.9kg) with a BMI of 55.7. To put it in perspective ideal BMI is 20 -25. This illustrates the scale of what I am doing and also the need to do it.

Finally a plea to all my family and friends, if you should see me attempting to eat anything not related to rabbit food please take it off me and shout at me very loud!!!

Thank-you for taking the time to read this and thank-you for your support, James. x

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