Those of you who are close to me will know that I have been going through a bit of a tough time at home recently. In February my mum had a heart attack, and in March my dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

In the light of these developments I have decided to run a half marathon for charity.

While I am asking for donations Prostate Cancer UK, I more intend to raise awareness. Fortunately for my dad, the cancer was caught very early, and he will likely be fine. Prostate cancer accounts for 26% of new cancer cases amongst males, and is the most common type. Furthermore, it is difficult to detect, for obvious reasons. Around 1 in 8 men get it, it is very common, but it is very treatable if caught early. Less than 30% of men who are diagnosed at a late stage survive for more than 5 years, whereas 100% of those diagnosed at an early stage do. Therefore, getting tested is vital. If my dad had not got checked up his chances of survival would be a lot lower, so I really urge you to speak to your dads and tell them about this.

The second charity I am asking for donations for is Burning Nights. This is my mum’s own charity, which seeks to help and support sufferers of chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS). CRPS is very rare (it only affects 2-5% of people who have had nerve injuries) but is very painful, and can lead to the amputation of limbs. Since Burning Nights is such a small charity, any donations are more than appreciated and will go very far towards helping sufferers of this illness.

The half-marathon I’m running is on July 28th, in Heaton Park. I’ve been training quite hard for it, but I think just finishing it will be an achievement given how out of shape I was, and that I’d never ran more than a mile and a half before I started training.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, and thank you for any donations.