Hi everyone,

Thanks for taking a look at my fundraising page! Now it's my job to get you to cough up for a good cause...

...so to start, I'd like to paint a picture. My name is Jessica and I'm a self confessed hater of running and generally anything involving sport or exercise. Anyone who knows me knows I look like a human tomato when I run (see proffy pic for evidence), I wheeze after about 5 minutes and if I'm honest, the only daily exercise I partake in is the occasional dab, much to everyone's discomfort. However, I've decided to run the Brighton marathon for Square Pegs Arts in September 2021, despite the fact I've never run more than 10k (this was 5 years ago now, so even that's a disputable claim).

"Why?" I hear you ask, well it's because I have a whole lot of love for Square Pegs, the young people who attend their workshops and every single person who is and has been involved with this amazing charity. 

The amazing Square Pegs Arts charity provide opportunities for vulnerable, socially isolated people with learning disabilities and autism to be involved in high quality Arts based groups, projects and performances. This allows people to be engaged in purposeful activity where they can build friendships and feel a real sense of belonging. They use drama, music and creative based methods to build confidence and self-esteem, develop social communication skills and other transferable skills so that everyone can achieve and maintain positive wellbeing and be their best self. 

I started volunteering at Square Pegs at aged 14 and had to leave the organisation when moving to London 3 odd years ago now. I loved every moment and working with the charity has truly made me who I am today. Seeing the positive impact Beth, the volunteers and the young people who attend have on each other and people around them never ceases to amaze me. Quite honestly, they all make this world a better place and I'd really love an opportunity to give something back.

Before you donate, I want to manage your expectations that I'm not doing this for speed, so there will be no PB or goal setting from my side. I'm not going to tell you I'll do it in under 4 hours or in some kind of weird outfit. I'm doing this purely to raise as much dollar as possible and to cross that finish line, even if that involves crawling, limping and a lot of swearing throughout.

I'm also doing it to prove that I can, as I'm queen of self-deprecation so wanna kick this god damn marathons butt.

Thanks for reading guys and lastly, I will of course ask you to dig deep. I give you my word that I will not be doing this ever again (not sure if I mentioned that I'll hate it, every single second). So I will not be beggin for money every year for some other type of extreme sport or sponsored walk etc. So just chuck all the dollar at me now, and we'll call it quits.

Big love to you all x