The Forest of Dean Spring Trails half marathon will be my first running event of 2017, and I would like to mark this by using it as an opportunity to raise much-needed funds for Ledbury Town Football Club, whom I have been following for nearly 15 years now and have acted as their press officer since 2010.

The club has a long and illustrious history, being part of the local community since 1893 and has seen a huge amount of success, becoming West Midlands League Division One champions at the end of the 2000/01 season, finishing fourth in the Premier Division and reaching round four of the FA Vase competition during the 2004/05 season, also winning the Herefordshire County Challenge Cup twice during the 2006/07 and 2009/10 seasons.

In recent years however, this rich history as well as the very existence of the club was put under huge threat when serious financial problems caused the New Street ground which it has called home since the 1950s to be repossessed by the landowners, resulting in the closure of its clubhouse and in turn ending all of the activities which the club relied upon in order to make money such as the bar, functions as well as hosting the local darts and skittles teams.

Emergency negotiations at the start of 2015 eventually resulted in an agreement being reached which allowed the club to continue using the pitch and changing rooms, with the ground now being under control of the Ledbury Swifts youth football club.

With LTFC now being forced to accept that New Street can no longer be their home long-term, the focus over the coming years is now on acquiring a new plot of land for a new facility.

This will require a huge amount of money however, and with the club now only able to make money on a regular basis through a tuck shop and a raffle at home games, I am keen to play my part in raising money through other means.

Please sponsor me and help to support the future of football in Ledbury for future generations. Thank you!

Chris