We're running the Loch Ness Marathon and raising money for the Ian Charleson Day Centre and Refuweegee!

Neither of us have run a marathon before. In fact, Rowan only started running during lockdown, so lacing up our trainers and running 26.3 miles on Oct. 3rd would be a massive achievement for us. To make it all worthwhile, we're raising money for two brilliant organisations close to our hearts. Please give anything you can afford to help support these great charities.

The Ian Charleson Day Centre (ICDC) serves clinical and mental health support to over 3000 patients living with HIV. Refuweegee provides a warm welcome to forcibly displaced people arriving in Glasgow. Its welcome packs, including letters from the locals, have made the city feel like home to over 10,000 New Scots.

Here's a bit more about the organisations:

The Ian Charleson Day Centre provides support for a range of medical conditions associated with people who have HIV, to ensure its patients have the best quality of care and enjoy long and happy lives. Care includes clinical support, physical and mental wellbeing, an emergency drop-in, blood testing, and it's the first HIV unit in the country to have a dedicated women's clinic.

As well as being a member of Rowan's family, Ian Charleson was best known as one of the Scotland's greatest film and stage actors. Most famously, he starred in Chariots of Fire, as well as numerous roles in the West End performing Shakespeare. He was diagnosed with HIV in 1986 and died, aged 40, in 1990. His was the first celebrity death in the United Kingdom openly attributed to AIDS, and the announcement helped to promote awareness and acceptance of the disease. The ICDC was opened in 1990.

Refuweegee provides a warm welcome to forcibly displaced people arriving in Glasgow. As a result of the amazing response from people in Glasgow and beyond, they have provided over 10,000 community-built, personal welcome packs and emergency support packs to people all over Glasgow and across Scotland.

Within each welcome pack for New Scots, Refuweegee provides "Letters fae the Locals" - postcards, greetings cards and notes from Glaswegians welcoming their new neigbours. These are a great way to extend a warm welcome, as well as top tips from the locals. You can send your own one here.

All money raised will be split evenly between Refuweegee and the Ian Charleson Day Centre.