Ladies and gents,

 

In an all too hasty and ill-advised bout of post-Olympic fervor, Ollie Meade-King, Timothy Elborne and I will be taking part in the San Sebastian Marathon in Spain on the 25th of November.

  

So why fire off self-indulgent emails telling everyone about this rubbish? Because we will be trying to raise money for an extremely worthwhile charity whose purpose we became all too aware of three years ago.

 

On the 9th of September 2009, following an inauspicious game of village cricket in Godalming, Ollie was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. Shortly after being diagnosed he began an intensive chemotherapy programme, the side-effects of which would lead to, amongst other things: withdrawal from University for 1 year, bouts of pneumonia, swine flu, an adverse reaction to anti-sickness medication, muscle depletion and complete hair-loss. Fortunately for us all, after three and a half years of chemo treatment (!) that will finally finish in March 2013 things have gone as well as they could and Ollie and his medical team are hopeful that he will make a full recovery.

 

Shmee's recovery thus far is not only testament to the truly remarkable person that he is, but also to the hard work of some great Doctors & Nurses and the advances that have occurred in this area of medicine over the last 20 years. The latter is the direct result of the investments received from charities such as Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research.

 

It's come to that part of the email….

 

Having witnessed first-hand the difference that it makes, we would all be incredibly grateful if you could take a few minutes out of your day to visit our Just Giving and make a donation to Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. Any donation is well-received as it all makes a difference.

 

Thank you very much for your time,

 

Los Conquistadores