When I first went to the gym in May 2014 I attempted to run 1 km on the treadmill - I did complete that 1 km but I had to take a walking break in the middle.

Since then I've worked my way up to longer distances and have participated in five 10 km races (I say "races" but I had no expectation of winning, just finishing is enough).

In September 2015, sixteen months after that first 1 km, I'll be running two half marathons and one 10 km event. Actually the first half marathon is done, and I hit my goal of finishing in under two hours (actual time was 1:55:13). The more challenging Windsor half marathon is still to be tackled at the end of the month.

I'm running to raise money for Sebastian's Action Trust, a charity which supports critically and terminally-ill children and their families and, hopefully, make their journeys easier. The charity honours Sebastian Gates, who died from cancer at the age of nine.

Those three 'races' will take just under five hours to run... but they actually represent sixteen months of training, three or four times a week, at distances of anywhere between 8 and 18 km. They represent chaffed skin, aching tendons and many hours of pounding the streets of Camberley.

Thank you in advance for your support.