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In just under 6 weeks a team of 5 Barclays staff will be running the New York Marathon in aid of Action for Kids. I’m sure that many of you are currently thinking that this is just an excuse for a pre-Christmas shopping trip but I can assure you that we have pulled this elite group of athletes together to raise more than £12,500 for Action for Kids. They are going to put their bodies and sanity on the line in this gruelling test of fitness and mental strength.

 

So why did we choose Action for Kids? They are an outstanding charity that works entirely within the UK to provide specialist mobility equipment and support for disabled children and their parents/carers. They work to help young people with disabilities “towards independence” through mobility equipment, work related learning, training of domestic and other practical life skills as well as providing family support services to parents and carers to help them. They have been running since 1991 and more recently one of our own BBM’s, David Budd took up a secondment as their Director of Fundraising. I have attached a link to their website so that you can learn more about what they do and how they support disabled young people and their families. The work they do is staggering and has such a positive impact on so many people that we thought that they could do with our support.

 

 

The mobility equipment and post production support that they provide costs in the region of £20,000 per person and so we are looking to try and provide them with more than half the costs of a single piece of equipment. They are built to order and do so much more than the very basic wheelchairs provided by the NHS, with your help we can make a significant difference to the life of a young person who really needs it.

 

So who are the elite group of athletes? Who is the Mo Farah in the bunch?

 

Andrew “the Double D” Eastwood – our very own Divisional Director is taking up the gauntlet for what will be his 7 Marathon and in the past has completed an Iron Man. As the professional of the team he will be handing out top tips on how to complete the marathon such as how not to pull a muscle 6k into a 42k run…… This may well be his marathon swansong as he looks to go sub 4 one last time before retirement.

 

Luke “the Tall guy” Jooste – Luke is possibly the tallest competitor running the NY marathon and they have asked him to shorten his stride to make it fair on us mere mortals. He is running in his second marathon after completing London in April and is looking to do 2 marathons in a calendar year! Unfortunately for Luke but fortunately for us the US embassy have granted Luke a visa so his last chance for a reprieve has gone. We are looking to do a NY 2012 calendar and Luke will be in each month if we raise enough money.

 

Richard “the Geek” Wyatt – Richard has completed two marathons in the past with a long list of celebrities claiming to have overtaken Richard in London 2003 and 2006 including various Mr Men, Wombles and the bloke in the deep sea diving outfit!  This year Richard has decided to carb load in Florida as part of his training and is now in the process of burning them off in preparation for NY. He has carefully planned his Carb intake and by his calculations should be perfectly prepared. Thankfully the Cricket season is over and so Richard’s beer intake has reduced significantly which will enable him to get round.

 

Neil “Fat Neil” Mullane – Neil, famed for his love of doughnuts, ran the London marathon this year with this nickname to gain sympathy from the crowd and has decided to carry it on. After failing with every diet known to man he decided to run marathons as a way of losing weight….clearly the heaviest of the group it is a miracle that he even gets round! The closest he will ever get to Mo Farah was being in the Olympic Stadium for his 10k gold medal run.

 

Ria “the energiser bunny” Barlabas – rumour has it according to Ria that the Greeks conquered as far North as Scotland. I’m not sure about that but if it was down to energy then I am pretty sure she would have conquered them on her own. This is Ria’s first marathon but it will be a challenge for her competitive spirit as she may well try to overtake every competitor and chase down the elite women’s race. A Greek Women’s world record is on the cards!!

 

The reason we have pulled a team of 5 together is that between us we think we will be able to raise enough money to make a difference. We also figured that between the 5 of us there would be at least one of us that you either liked enough or to be honest thought were ok enough to donate to. With Barclays £4£ we need the equivalent of 875 people donating £10 each or 424 people donating £20 each (“The Geek” did those stats for us!). This will get us to our minimum target and then we will add on Gift Aid and look to take our fundraising to even greater levels. Every penny that you donate will be going towards supporting them make the life of a young person better. I am sure that many of you will have already given to charity this year and many of you will have contributed to our marathon fundraising earlier in the year – for that we thank you enormously for your support. However we will ask you one more time to support Action for Kids by sponsoring one or all of us to complete this tough event.

 

http://www.actionforkids.org/whatwedo.asp