I’m am running the London marathon at the beginning of October and aiming to raise lots of money for the Friends of Hook Norton School. As a parent governor of the school,  I know just how stretched the finances are. All money raised will go directly to making a difference to the current and future children at this fabulous primary school. 

I decided to enter the ballot a couple of years ago - for a laugh (I am not a natural runner and I don’t really enjoy running!!) and not believing I’d ever get a place.  How wrong I was!! 

I wasn’t able to run it last year as I couldn’t get all my training in  - as a secondary school teacher and mum to three children it was just impossible. So I had to defer and I had to sort out my training. Big thanks to my lovely husband Martin who has supported me all the way and even did a run with me on the morning after our 10th wedding anniversary.  Thanks to my kids - Alex, Sam and Verity for encouraging their mum- especially Sam for running with me (he’s a much better runner than me) , thanks to Marc Gilkes for getting me running around the Hooky tennis court and thanks to Sarah Marshall for her brilliant, yet brutal, personal training sessions. 

PLEASE give as much as you can for the children of Hooky primary school.  For the last 4 months I have run everywhere- to Stratford and back on the Greenway, along the Sussex coast, on the South Downs, around Norfolk in blistering heat, around the Eiffel Tower with a stonking hangover and I have done the Hooky loop past the dairy farm to the Gate Hangs High more times than I can remember. My final challenge before the big day on Sunday 2nd October is working out how to get to London when there’s a train strike on!