Alex, Eoin and I - along with a team of runners from First Days - are running the Reading Half Marathon on March 17th 2019. 

Alex, as a teacher in a local school, understands the pressures on parents to provide everything that children need for school. First Days provides a vital service to families from across East Berkshire whose parents are struggling to afford the essentials - whether that's school uniform, a safe bed for the night or coats and shoes. First Days is there in parents' moments of crisis to provide support. 

Eoin and I are both trustees of the charity, which I started in 2013. We now help 1700 children per year. 

For all three of us this will be our first Half Marathon, so every penny is hugely appreciated and will definitely spur us on during the race. 

(this page also has donations from lovely people for the Ride London 100, which I couldn't do last year, but will be completing this year, if no more domestic animals knock me off my bike! Emma) 

Here's why we're fundraising for First Days (aside from the sleepless nights worrying about the future of the charity ...) 

I can't imagine having to work out if I should buy my child new shoes or feed them. I can't imagine what it must be like to raise children who have never slept in a bed, because I can't afford one. 

I am so lucky, so privileged and so grateful. 

I am also completely disgusted that we live in a society where 4.1 million families are living below the poverty line. That means - for context - that after the cost of rent and utilities they have just £16 per day for everything else. In the area that First Days works (Reading, Wokingham, Bracknell, Windsor & Maidenhead and Slough) there are 25,000 families living in this situation. 

Austerity, a welfare system that has been mangled to the point of being no benefit at all and a deep and systematic lack of opportunity in education and employment has left a whole generation damned. 

We help - in a very small but meaningful way - to lighten the load of families by providing everyday essentials - like nappies, safe beds, shoes and school uniforms - to families who can't afford them. We want to do so much more to stand shoulder to shoulder with these families as they do the best they can for their children, which we will do - with the right time and money. 

We raise ALL the money for First Days through events like this, generous businesses and some grants and trusts. We don't receive any government or statutory funding. It costs our volunteers just £25 to collect, sort and redistribute enough stuff for one set of parents to be set up for a new baby or a family to be able to give their children beds for the first time. Just £25 to help one of the millions of families living in poverty - seems like pretty good value. 


Thank you thank you thank you thank you