Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Now it really is starting to sink in…the enormity of what I have signed up for!  I have secured a place to run the Virgin London Marathon for Henshaws on 22nd April 2018.

Let me just put this in some sort of context... not only have I decided to voluntarily run 26.2 miles but have also in doing so agreed to raise quite a bit of money!  I know people do this all the time; a million people have completed it since it began in 1981 and a whopping £890 million has been raised for charity since then.  I also know for every single person that did so it was huge and momentous and defining.  I am nothing out of the ordinary in that respect but it still really feels like it, precisely because it’s out of the ordinary for me. 

Many of you will know I work for Henshaws and have done for almost 12 years.  It is a tough time for charities at the moment and I've seen a lot of changes in my time working for Henshaws and this year has been particularly hard.  However my amazing colleagues are still changing lives every day.  As part of my role at Henshaws I am enormously privileged to hear people's stories about what a difference accessing our services has made to their lives.  Some really stand out; the 8 year old who didn't know what the funny feeling in her tummy was after attending one of our children's courses and then realised it was happiness because she had made a friend for the first time, the mother who hadn't been out of her bedroom for 2 years because she was so low due to her sight loss who is now happily volunteering and living her life to the full and the older lady who has had support from our IT team and is now online and back in touch with family and friends across the world.

If you get chance please copy and paste the link below and watch this video because the words of the people Henshaws support just say everything.

https://youtu.be/cpagsG_bcIY

If you don't manage to watch the video though I think these words also sum up why Henshaws work matters so much..

'When I lost my sight I just didn’t think there was anything I could do and that was the end of my life..  It was literally either I phone Henshaws or the Samaritans.  But now I’ve got a new direction and it has given me the old me back again. It came for me just at the time I needed it, I couldn’t have gone another couple of weeks, I was that bad.’

'Henshaws have given me back my laughter'

Every penny I raise will go towards helping more people with sight loss live the lives they want to and to realise its not the end but just a different beginning .  Thanks so much for reading (and donating if you can) and wish me luck!

Helen xx

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