Story
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">I will be raising money for Wellbeing of Women through 2 challenges this year. The London Marathon and the Funny Women Challenge.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;">London Marathon </span></strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">26 miles of not so pure pleasure :-) I am not a natural runner, however, I am determined to finish the course, especially as running the marathon is on my list of 40 things to do before I am 40. Commiting to running the Marathon has actually taken more commitment and time than I originally thought. By the end of Feb I will be training at least 3 times a week and clocking up at least 15 miles or more. Training for the Marathon has already improved my own wellbeing as I have quit the occasional cigarette, lost a stone and all together taken a much healthier lifestyle.</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;">Funny Women</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">Each year the Funny Women organisations takes 10 high profile Women who are not in Comedy and trains them to be comedians. After avoiding this one last year, I have finally been caught by Lynne and the Wellbeing team to take part and I have to say I am petrified. I have a mentor, I have my material and now I am counting down the days until I have to perform my own stand-up routine in front of a large audience. The whole challenge culminates in a lovely event on the 8th of March whereby all 10 of us will compete for the coveted title of Funny Woman 2012. <strong><span style="font-family: Arial;">Tickets are available at £60 per head which includes a sit down meal. See <a title="Funny Women" href="http://www.funnywomen.com">www.funnywomen.com</a></span></strong></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;">About the Charity<br></span></strong></span></p>
<p><span class="indexsubtitle"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">Wellbeing of Women was established in 1964 and has been raising funds ever since then to invest in medical research and the development of specialist doctors and nurses working in the field of reproductive and gynaecological health.</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> We are the partner charity of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and a member of the Association of Medical Research Charities.</span><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;"><br> <br> </span><strong><span style="font-family: Arial;">Why do we exist?</span></strong></p>
<p><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">1 in 2 women in the UK will suffer from some kind of reproductive or gynaecological health problem<br> 17 babies a day die in the UK at or near birth<br> 140 women a week in the UK die of a gynaecological cancer<br> 2 million women suffer the pain of endometriosis<br> 1 in 3 women will suffer from urinary incontinence at some point in their lives<br> 1 in 5 pregnancies ends in miscarriage<br> Women remain embarrassed to talk about these types of health problems, even with their doctors</span></p>
<p><strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;">What do we do</span></strong><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: Arial; color: black;"><br> We raise money to fund research. This research can be into any area of reproductive and gynaecological health. We have a very good reputation for selecting only the best possible projects for funding and have been awarded a 'Certificate of Best Practice in Medical Health Peer Review' by the AMRC. We have been funding research since 1964 and many of the developments in this area that are now taken for granted will have been helped into being by this work; fetal scanning, IVF, vitamin supplements for pregnancy, cervical cancer screening.<br> <br> So please dig deep and donate now.</span></p>