Late in 2017, my oldest friend, Patrick, told me that his mother, Rosie, had died as a result of Parkinsons, a disease she had been fighting for 24 years. I have known Rosie since I was 13: she was a teacher at the school Patrick and I attended, and over the years, I have had the great pleasure of knowing, drinking coffee and sharing meals with her and her husband Paul as I grew up. I can only imagine how difficult and hard life has been with Parkinsons, and I would like to do something to contribute to further research to help find a cure, particularly as Parkinsons has affected my own extended family. Patrick, Rosie, Paul and their family very much shaped the best of my memories from school, so I run for many reasons: to remember Rosie; to support an important charity, who do vital work; and to support my oldest friend, whose friendship and presence in my life, now and particularly when we were younger, gave me the confidence to be me.

So to do this, I am running the South Huddersfield Trail and Road Series, which comprises of:

Windmill 6, a 6 mile road race around Spicer Hill (Sunday May 6^th)
The School Run, a 9km trail run (Saturday June 5^th)
The Toss O’Coin Race, a 6 mile trail/hill (Sunday July 15^th)
Shepley 10k (Sunday September 9^th)
The Stairway to Heaven, a 12km road/trail run (Saturday September 29^th)

I'm also hoping to add a half marathon in October/ November once I get myself organised over the next few weeks.

So please support! As ever with any bit of running I try and do (including my school's cross country, in which I was terrible), I run knowing that "run" is a deeply ambitious and optimistic way of describing what I do; I run knowing that I am neither very good nor really able to train as much as I would like. (I am slightly alarmed at all the publicity photos of the trail series which seems to only contain club runners and fit people wearing vests - I am neither of these.) However, I run for a good and an important cause, and any amount that you can donate will be gratefully received.