Thank you to everyone who sponsored me. I managed the course in 1:51, a slight improvement on last year. The page is open until Christmas, but thank you so much, you have all made a massive difference!

Oki

Hi Everybody!

Firstly thanks for taking the time to visit my page! As you will now know, I am running the Great North Run this September to raise money and awareness for the United Movement to End Child Soldiering (www.endchildsoldiering.org).

UMECS are a charity dedicated to building a culture of peace and fostering the education, rehabilitation and community reintegration of children and youth affected by conflict, particularly in Northern Uganda. I visited some of the charity's projects last summer and was deeply touched by the work UMECS do to re-adjust affected children into society and promote peace education. Having visited some of children who's lives had been torn apart by the LRA  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lords_Resistance_Army)and civil war;  to see the effect that education had on their lives was genuinely inspirational. 13 miles is a short distance to run in comparison to the pain and suffering endured by these children.

This is the second year I will be running for UMECS, and am pleased that the Swinfen Charitable Trust have agreed to be the Justgiving agent for donations. As UMECS is a Ugandan charity, they have chosen Swinfen as their UK counterpart to make donations easier via justgiving.com. PLEASE NOTE, ALL DONATIONS WILL GO DIRECTLY TO UMECS.

Please donate generously. I'm aware this will not be the only donation request you receive this season, and ask you all to dig deep and think about me at mile 11! Thank you in advance for all your support, Christ knows I'll need it! Thanks also to Lord Swinfen and the Swinfen Charitable Trust for their agency.

See you all at the finish!

Jonathan (Oki)

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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.