I signed up for the '23 marathon got all the way to my final 4 weeks of training (after a tough 6 months) and got injured... Just wasn't enough time to recover for the marathon. I've deferred my spot until '24 so will be running it then and will be completing a marathon on September 10th. Giving me another 16 weeks of training, hopefully not wasted this time!

You might think why am I doing it, why didn't I just not pay the entry fee and let the spot go elsewhere? The reason is only a week or two earlier I saw that my friend was raising money for Just4Children who are fundraising to give his daughter Izzy the therapies, treatments, equipment and surgery she needs to improve her quality and outlook in life and I wanted to help. You can read more about Izzy's story below.

Isabelle is a sweet little girl from Rochester, Kent, who has cerebral palsy and a number of other conditions that affect her quality of life in many ways.
After a traumatic pregnancy and birth, Isabelle and her identical twin sister Daisy were born at just 25 weeks gestation. Sadly, Daisy was not strong enough and passed away soon after.

Being extremely premature, there were many complications and occasions where we nearly lost Isabelle too, but she fought on through brain injury, bowel operations, infections and 3 months in NICU to finally come home still on oxygen and a cocktail of medicines.

Because of this difficult start and the many complications and diagnosis, her development has not been in line with typical child her age and is significantly delayed in most areas. Due to high muscle tone in her legs she is in discomfort and often wakes at night in pain. She is non-verbal so has difficulty communicating and her physical difficulties means that she is a full time wheelchair user, unable to stand, walk or even sit unaided.

There is hope for Isabelle. We are trying to raise funds with Just4Children to enable her to receive therapies, treatments and equipment that she needs to improve her comfort, mobility and development. Our goal is that Just4Children raise enough money to fund life changing Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) surgery and the intensive physiotherapy that she will need pre and post operation. This operation has the potential to improve her comfort, mobility and many other areas of her development.

With your help we hope that she will be able to achieve her full potential and gain some independence and be able to do some of the things that we all take for granted. We want to give her the best quality of life, improve her outlook and to give her the best chance of independence when she grows up.

Your generosity and support will make a huge impact to her life, giving Izzy the chance to work towards taking those first big steps!