I'm running the Royal Parks Half Marathon for Future Hope. As a team, we are aiming to raise enough money to provide seven children from the slums with an all-round education at Future Hope's school in Kolkata. As new children arrive with Future Hope from the streets and slums all the time, our fundraising target of £4,650 will provide the education which will give these youngsters the start in life they deserve.

Future Hope is a truly amazing organisation which provides an opportunity in life for some of the most vulnerable children from the streets and slums of Kolkata, through its homes, schools and medical programmes. Every night children sleep alone on the streets and around the city’s main stations. Many are ill, most suffer serious forms of exploitation and all are vulnerable. Future Hope works to change the lives of destitute children and help them to become independent, self-supporting members of society.

I spent three months with Future Hope in 2000/1 and witnessed first hand the extraordinary impact it has on the lives of the young people it is able to help in Kolkata. At its core, Future Hope is a family and it provides a loving and caring environment for children who desperately need it to grow up into responsible young adults. The fact that Future Hope alumni, who's fortunes were so bleak before they arrived, can go on to become self-reliant, hardworking members of society, with steady employment and happy families is a genuinely remarkable thing and speaks volumes about the incredible work this charity does.

If you are able to support by donating, I know it will be hugely appreciated.

Thank you,

Henry