Hi there, Jonathan here - thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page!

I will be running a silly amount of miles for Smile Train, a wonderful charity which provides free cleft surgeries to kids all around the world and in less fortunate countries.

To be exact, I will be attempting to run 45 kilometres or 28 miles from my house in Prescot, Merseyside (NW, UK) to my friend/colleague Amir's house in Wilmslow, Greater Manchester (see map!). I realised that due to social distancing a lot of charities are missing out on donations due to postponed or cancelled sporting events - so I thought I'd do my part! Please know, I have never even ran anything close to this distance before so this is bound to be a 'character developing' journey and as such don't have a target time in mind and would be elated to just finish hahaha..

Why Smile Train? - So, currently, as a Medical Student at University of Cambridge I represent the Cambridge University Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery Society and being in and around MaxFax (our cool shorthand name) you start to really realise how much social weight is placed on peoples appearances and just how much appearance affects peoples everyday interactions and confidence. Within Cleft, one of the branches of MaxFax, you see these awesome kids that soldier through treatment after treatment for the cleft itself and problems with speech, eating and hearing. Then they go through a tougher version of the whole coming to terms with your appearance and confidence that comes with being a teenager which is frankly already tough enough. As a person of colour who grew up in a relatively homogenous demographic, and even whilst everyone was perfectly nice, I didn't realise it at the time but I found it really challenging adjusting to social norms and finding a sense of self-identity. So as a result, seeing these children navigate their journey and their version of this pulls on so many of my heartstrings all at once. These kids are so inspiring and full of potential, I believe they deserve every chance to pursue their own happiness and opportunities just the same as the rest of their peers. 

Smile Train is one of the leading organisations in and around Cleft that not only provides the invaluable access to services but also it does a great job of raising awareness about cleft and marketing its mission as a worthy cause. Please do check out their website to find out more! They also have a super emotive documentary about their mission from 2008 called Smile Pinki which won an Oscar and is free to watch on YouTube. Would recommend!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story and considering making a donation! It is very much appreciated!

PS: if you are Medical Student, do check out and experience some MaxFax/OMFS & Cleft, they are worthy of at least a thought!

Housekeeping: Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving - they'll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to the charity. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.