I'll be running the Paris Marathon on October 17th to support my favourite charity, Children Change Colombia.

For a long time, I've wanted to do this fundraiser. When I turned 50, I understood I wanted nothing for myself, only to give back.

One of my first memories in Colombia is talking to a street kid my age when I was four. My mum had left me in the tiny Simca we had while she went shopping, so I opened the window and started chatting with this kid. I asked him where he lived. He said he lived there, in the street. What do you do when it rains? He lived in the sewers.

I grew up seeing poverty, massive migrations to cities, children abandoning their homes to live in the streets, sewers, selling contraband Marlboros in gangs, wiping car windscreens... Children Change Colombia's founder couldn’t bear this any longer so he started by moving kids out of sewers and into safe housing. The nonprofit, originally known as Children of the Andes, now has forward-thinking initiatives to suit the current needs of children in Colombia. It is not a handout charity, but one that focuses on structural issues affecting kids.

Like child labour.

In impoverished communities in Colombia, parents often assume their kids are better off not going to school and working. CCC created a scheme to help parents (typically single moms) afford school expenses including bus fares and books.

By financing these tiny fees, parents felt compelled to send their kids to school, sparing them the traumatic experience of working in places like makeshift brick factories or construction sites, being exposed to physical injury, and missing out on education.

Children Change Colombia studied the issue of child labour in Colombia and shared their findings and strategies with other non-profits and municipal governments to help fight it on a larger scale. This is but one of their many initiatives focused on education and shows best what I admire about them: that through research they tackle issues that make a big impact on children’s lives, helping build a sustainable future for a country devastated by war and urban poverty for too long.

That's why I could pick no other charity to celebrate my 50th birthday.

I didn’t know how to train for a marathon, so I ran 53 half marathons in a row in the last two months! Check my Strava! Maybe I'm ready now.

Running reminds me of what dedication and self-sacrifice can achieve. It's a mental battle. Running is difficult, sometimes painful, but always rewarding. More so to share stories like these and attempt to contribute. Self-sacrifice makes no sense unless it helps others. Those we know are in greater need.

Thank you for your support.