For the 175th anniversary year of Urmston Sports Club I’m running 175 laps (70km/43.5 miles) of the cricket pitch to try and raise money for the club.

At this time last year I’d just been diagnosed with a spinal cord cavernoma which was starting to affect the feelings and use of my arms and legs. It was successfully removed in May and despite leaving some nerve damage I’m extremely grateful that I can finally run and pick up my tennis racket again. Doing either of these wasn't a given after surgery so I feel extremely fortunate.

Two months later my wife Lynn was diagnosed with a kidney tumour, and in August had it and her kidney removed, but again, the outcome has been a positive one and we have a lot to be thankful for

The club’s close proximity to us, was, and still is so important in helping our recovery and rehabilitation. We received a lot of support from friends at the club and are very appreciative of this. So we wanted to help out this year in a way that we couldn’t in 2020 when the pandemic struck but so many volunteers got stuck in to help refurbish and decorate aspects of the club.

Myself, Lynn and our boys, Theo and Seb, are each aiming to run/walk 175 laps of the pitch before the end of May. I’m looking to run my last 10km (25 laps) on the 23rd May as this would have normally been my annual outing at the Greater Manchester Run, and it's also a year on from surgery.

It’s a special year at the club too with it being it's 175th year, and there is always an endless list of essential jobs that need doing at a grassroots club, such as USC, trying to stay afloat. New furniture for the function room, replacing an unsightly, dilapidated wall and renewing toilet facilities are all desperately needed.

The club sits at the centre of Urmston and is very important to the local community offering cricket, tennis, hockey, bowls, football, softball, croquet plus a whole host of events.

If you‘d like to donate and help Urmston Sports Club through these extremely difficult times you can do so at Just Giving and any amount, no matter how small, will help us here at this very special club.

David Warne