I am running the 2018 Great North Run (1/2 Marathon) on Sunday September 9th for Macmillan Cancer Support.  I am doing this because I want to say "Thank You Macmillan" for the incredible support that they have given my good friend Elaine & my sister in law Joanne over the last 2+ years.  Both Elaine and Joanne have had Breast Cancer, going though chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and recuperation.  All of this with fantastic, compassionate support of the local Macmillan team in Harrogate.  I hope to raise at least £500, although I have set a "stretch target" of £800, as a way of giving back to Macmillan and to say "Thank You".

I have never run this distance before.  I only started running in Sept 2015 after seeing a load of people running round the Harrogate Stray one Saturday morning, which turned out to be a thing called "Parkrun".  After only a few weeks of trying to complete this 5k Parkrun myself I caught the running bug .  I now regularly do 5k each week and I have done a small number of 10k runs.  Therefore with the GNR being a half marathon it is over twice the length I have ever run before!  (13.1 miles which is just over 21km!)

I am doing this with my regular "running buddy"  Gavin Smith (Joannes partner), who is also running for "Team Macmillan" raising money for the same great cause.  Gav has his own page and fund raising target too, so please visit that page as well. 

Please take the time to sponsor us. We both want to say "thank you" for the great support and care given by the local Macmillan team to Elaine & Joanne and this is our way to do it.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for your support of us and Macmillan.

See you at the finish line!  James