*** I’M KICKSTARTING MY FUNDRAISING WITH THE FEBRUARY 2000 BURPEES CHALLENGE - YES THAT’S 72 BURPEES A DAY FOR 28 DAYS!! LORD HAVE MERCY - THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR SUPPORT!!! :) ***

For my age and efforts, I am completely crap at running. There's no two ways about it. My Strava, Apple Health and Parkrun age-grading stats do not lie. My body just does not want to do it - and to be honest most of the time, neither do I!! Thankfully my Monkey Runners and the [North Shields] Poly have kept me going over the years - such lovely groups of people and I couldn't do without them.

Despite the above, thanks to my running obsessed father I have long had this obsession with doing the London Marathon. Standing on the Mall with tears in your eyes as all those amazing people pass you by to the finish line will do it, I tell ya. So this year I've given up on the ballot and decided it's time. Seeing as it will be a once-in-a-lifetime event for me (I appear to be resistant to the so-called 'running bug') I'm going to do it for something good...I mean aside from the (hopefully) 10 stone weight loss so I can look like I do in some of these older pictures again!!

I have supported my Dad's regular fund-raising for the Bone Cancer Research Trust over the last ten years after his best friend Tim Albiston tragically lost his son, Alexander Albiston, aged just 18 years old. Alexander had already started fundraising for the charity after his diagnosis, strongly believing in their cause, and together Tim's amazing friendship group have continued and raised £179,090 to date. You can read more about Alexander and his amazing fight at https://timalb.wixsite.com/alexalbiston/alex-story and I really recommend you do. Inspiring and heartbreaking in equal measures.

Now it's my turn and I couldn't be more proud to be taking on the challenge on their behalf. I know this is a monumental undertaking for myself to train and run this thing (especially alongside my silly hours at the hospital), but I do also appreciate that I am asking a lot of all my family and friends to please support me in doing so. Any donations at all will be so SO gratefully received - by me, my Dad, the BCRT and all their supporters. 

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is dedicated to saving lives & improving outcomes for people affected by primary bone cancer. Despite being small, they fund more research projects exploring primary bone cancer than any other organisation. Other large UK cancer research charities do not prioritise bone cancer patients, in 2019 just 0.028% of their research spend went to bone cancer – not even close to 1%!Last year alone, Bone Cancer Research Trust committed an incredible £807,824 to pioneering bone cancer research - to save lives!