Past Tom was apparently very optimistic about my levels of fitness and has thus entered me into the 2016 London Marathon! Many of you know that I'm not exactly at the peak of my fitness, so I'll be working hard over the next 9 months to build myself back up to reach my goal of running the Marathon in under 3 hours 40 minutes (nearly a mile every 8 minutes). Wish me luck!

Aside from this being a long-standing personal goal, the main reason I'm doing this is to raise money for the wonderful people at Samaritans. The Samaritans is a UK charity providing 24/7 support to people who need someone to talk to. Every year they answer more than 5,000,000 calls for help, a call every six seconds. They also reach out to high-risk communities, run targeted projects at areas such as railways, and look to raise awareness and remove the stigma of mental illness across the country. I've known the charity for a long time through the inspirational work someone very close to me has done for them for a number of years now and am thrilled to have the opportunity to help out as well. Samaritans runs entirely off donations and thus anything you sponsor me will be directly going to helping volunteers man the phones and answer texts and emails to people facing a crucial time in their life and needing support.

I've likely talked to many of you at some point before about mental health, but its an issue I care deeply about. Suicide is the biggest killer of men aged 20-49 and it simply doesn't get the attention it deserves. As someone who has had their own mental health battles, I'm painfully aware of the stigma that exists around discussing mental health issues. At times of need, a service like Samaritans can provide much-needed anonymous support by trained volunteers that can really make a difference to someone's life. And they're doing this every six seconds. Anything you can give to help would be greatly appreciated.