Firstly, thank you very much indeed for visiting my justgiving page.

 The Marathon Des Sables ( the marathon of the sands) is a 6 day ultra marathon of 250km run through the Sahara desert in Morocco between 9-14th of April this year. In addition to this, competitors must carry on their back all the provisions (- water) that they will need for the 6 days, including all their food, cooking, sleeping  and emergency equipment, such as a venom pump(!). My backpack will be approximately 9.5 kg. It's no wonder the MdS is sometimes referred to as the "toughest foot race on earth" and i do not enter it lightly. It is a race for which i have been training the best part of one year.

  It's difficult to explain why i would choose to do something as daunting as this, but the reason is simple: I lost both my brother Tom (17) and my mum Caroline (46) before their time to cancer - a disease that needs far better treatments. Tom was only 16 when he noticed a small lump in his calf muscle which had unfortunately already spread too far for his treatment to be curative. I can't imagine anything more terrible than to face your own mortality at just 17. The personal cost of this disease to him, myself and my family and to so many others has been devastating and brutal but i can only try and bring something positive out of the whole experience.

This is why i'm asking if you wouldn't mind sparing just a few pounds for a donation for what i think is a worthy cause.

Many thanks as always

Ed