Let me explain how this came to be...

As friends of mine will know I enter the London Marathon ballot every year and, despite 6 years of disappointment, I always try and always think this year I will be lucky. Well, this year again I was not one of the lucky few...

That is until I came back to work after the Christmas break to be met by my lovely colleague Nick, smiling at me a little more than usual! He said he had a friend who worked for an amazing charity, who had for the first time secured an even-more-hard-to-get charity place in the London marathon! However, their runner had hit a problem and could not run...'Would I like to do it?!'

To which I said YES! Then quietly, 'Oh no I need to start training hard...' like most I over indulged at Christmas and took a few weeks off the gym...now in 14 weeks time I will be running a Marathon! Help me please!

You have two ways to help...train with me, make me run even in this horrid weather or encourage me and help me meet my fundraising goal for Mercy in Action; I know I will keep going if I am doing it to help this wonderful charity bring food, shelter, love and education in to the lives of disadvantaged children.

If I was you I would leave the training up to Stuart (my PE teacher husband) and sit in the warm...after sparing what you can to support me and this wonderful charity!

So let me tell you just a little about Mercy in Action and why I want to run for them. I am a teacher and very proud to be; I believe my job is about making the world a better place, because in the words of Whitney Houston (I do apologise for the cheese factor) the children are our future! All children need an education, it is one of the factors that will help them be the adults of tomorrow they need to be to make the world a better place. Mercy in Action helps street children and children living in extreme poverty in the Philippines access education. They also give these children food, shelter and love. All children deserve this, please help make a difference in the lives of these children and beyond!

I could say more but I am stopping myself.. less talk more running!!

All that is left to say is thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page, I really do appreciate your support.

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.