I am soon to leave Leicester and as many of you know I have managed to turn things around quite well this over the last 18 months from being over 23 and half stone to a position where I can exercise again. In a fit of madness I am due to do a 10km run on the 9th of September in Leicester, hoping to have hit my initial Slimming World target of 16 stone by then and using it as an incentive even though I hate running!

With me leaving my job to go down to Winchester I also hope that work colleagues will help support this cause instead of making donations for me leaving. I will be sending the money over independently as they are not set up on here.

So who am I raising money for? Over a year ago I read an inspirational story about a different take on how to help those suffering from domestic violence get out of their awful situation. This is the story.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39283407

From all the work I saw from my legal aid work I have always felt that there is not enough help or support for people, and also it made me happy seeing the good news stories from when people were helped. The agencies I oversaw in London don't appear to be around any more and so I thought it would be good to support EDEMM.

But this is as much as anything about me, and getting me to keep working on getting my health better. I feel the best I have since 2007, and feel as if I can get back to my weight of the 1990's and back to a healthy weight. One of the things that really helped me was the people at my Slimming World group voted me as the Man Of The Year for the challenges I've tried to overcome and that has really helped inspire me to keep making sure I try to keep it up. People supporting me in this would have the same effect. I would not want to let people down by not giving it my best, and your support would mean a lot to me. Even if just a £1, it all adds up.

Thanks :)

Richard