Hi all,

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page!

On Sunday 24th April, I will be attempting my first ever marathon. I was lucky enough to get a ballot place in the Virgin Money London Marathon, and have decided to run for Breast Cancer Now, a charity close to my heart. 

My running journey started back in June 2013 when I ran a 5k Race for Life without having trained - it almost killed me! When the race came around again in 2014 I decided to dust my trainers off slightly earlier and build up the distance slowly - then I was hooked! After running a couple of 10ks in 2014, I set myself a New Year's resolution last year to go for 100 runs - all had to be outside, over 5k and each on a different day. I completed my 100th run, full of a cold, on 31 December having run over 600k throughout the whole of 2015 including a half marathon. Not a big amount for a lot of people (especially the speed I run at which is ridiculously slow), but a huge achievement to me.

Then last April, in a moment of madness, I entered for the London marathon ballot and found out in October that I got in! Not very long after, James also got in on a charity place.

We've been training ever since. Although I've had a few setbacks along the way (various colds and most recently shin splints which took me off the roads and into a gym for three weeks!), I'm training hard. My furthest run so far was just over 20 miles (a very hilly 20 miles) which was extremely tough!

I would massively appreciate any kind donations from you lovely lot to keep me motivated and to raise money for such a worthy cause which I'm very passionate about.

If you know James too, please visit his page where you can also donate to him and leave him well wishes! Details as follows:

https://www.justgiving.com/James-Chalmers4/

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.