Ok, so. I don't run. I've never run in my life. I've spent most of my adult life swinging between overweight and obese and I was the person who would walk the school cross country runs. So why not start with a half marathon? Sounds easy! 🙃

I'm running the half marathon partly to prove I can, but mostly because if I'm going to try to raise serious money for the National Autistic Society, I might as well go big!

My family is massively affected by Autism on a day-to-day basis. My brilliant younger brother is a whopping 6 foot something who is pretty much entirely non-verbal, has to wear nappies and loves trains. That's in order of least impact to most impact. We spend a lot of time around trains and I'm not sure it's been good for the wellbeing of the rest of my family.

David loves cats, but not dogs or birds, he will only really eat chips, crisps and small amounts of chocolate, he will only drink diet coke, he loves Christmas and birthdays and will keep a countdown going to each as soon as the other ends (so Christmas countdown starts in March), he can find his favourite Thomas the Tank Engine videos on Youtube with ease, and he loves to give cuddles. We are very lucky with David. Many families caring for a severely Autistic person don't get cuddles.

David was diagnosed at a young age, which means he's lucky. He's been able to benefit from specialised schooling and care for pretty much his entire life, and is currently in part time care that follows school hours. He's 22, now, and as an adult, my parents have to take him for regular checks and tests to check whether he's fit to work yet. Because someone who can't microwave his own chips should be out in the real world apparently.

The National Autistic Society is the largest Autism charity in the UK, and has the most power to help improve the lives of people like David. Let's help them do it.