On July 3^rd I’ll be dragging myself around the 140.6 mile Bolton Ironman UK Triathlon course for the third time. That's a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile marathon run to finish, all in under (hopefully significantly under) 17 hours.

I thought long and hard about doing this again given the 12 month investment in training time, the ever ageing body and not quite the same need to prove to myself that I still could. But somewhere in the middle of lockdown, when everything was cancelled, I had this grand idea that we should keep on doing the things we enjoy whilst we’re still able to, as we never know when the opportunities might be gone through ill health, pandemics, WWIII etc. So roughly a year ago I filled in an entry form, paid my fee and started to look forward to the road ahead!

I also thought for even longer about whether I had the cheek to ask for contributions to charity yet again, but in the end I decided Macmillan's need for our support is greater than ever. Please take a moment to read why The Impact of COVID-19 on Cancer Care means the fantastic people at Macmillan will need all the help we can give them over the next few years.

Rather than simply ask you to donate money to a charity because I’m participating in a, let’s be honest, completely selfish endeavour, I thought this time I’d try something different.

I've no idea if this will work, but as an exercise in awareness of how pretty much everybody is impacted in some way by cancer, I’d like to ask you to make a small donation (or several large ones) in memory of somebody lost to cancer who has influenced your life. I appreciate this may be deeply personal and perhaps very raw for some, so please leave as much information (or none at all) as you feel comfortable with.

The only ask is that you have somebody in mind with each donation made, and if you can spare the time maybe reflect on what others have shared. Always good to get a reminder to be nice to each other - you never know what somebody else is going through. I’ve made a start to give some examples of what I mean.

Thank you so much for anything you are able to contribute, I’m very conscious of the current economic climate/cost of living crisis when asking so all donations are doubly appreciated and very, very gratefully received.