For most of you reading this, this will not have been the first time that I've shown you a fundraising page, asked you to donate, and get behind an important and worthy cause. From being in charge of oiling (?) charity fashion show models (two years running), to getting your office to jump on bikes all across London, organising fundraising events has been a often weird, always wonderful past time for a little while now. However, whilst it's always my bag to support the brilliant efforts of others, I've therefore sneakily sidestepped any actual challenging/partaking/underwear modelling/direct fundraising myself; well, that ends today!

Against literally all the odds, I rediscovered running during lockdown, and like many of us it brought me release, routine and more than a few blisters during that time. And now, against all the odds, and after entering the ballot after a few glasses of wine, I got a place on the London Landmarks Half Marathon (eek.) 

I'm running my very first half-marathon (in fact, my very first race since the St Andrews School Dolman (if you know, you know)), and I'm running it for CoppaFeel!. 

CoppaFeel! are the first UK breast cancer charity to create awareness amongst young people, with the aim to install a new healthy habit that could one day save a life. We're are on a mission to stamp out late detection of breast cancer and ensure the nation is checking their boobs regularly. We want to educate people on the signs and symptoms of breast cancer, encourage them to get to know what is normal for them and empower young people to have the confidence to see a doctor if they notice anything that isn't right for them.

If you're a person with a body, supporting CoppaFeel! should be important to you. Breast cancer can affect any body, at any age; that includes just under 10,000 women under 50 in the UK every year, plus almost 400 men. But, a quarter of 18-24's aren't aware they could be at risk.

Too many people don't know how important (and easy) it is to get to know yourself; becoming your body's best advocate and spokesperson is so powerful and every day I see how funds raised for CoppaFeel! go to the most amazing places to help more people be turned into chest-checking aficionados, whether that's creating inspiring new resources for trans and non-binary people, funding volunteers who share their stories across the country for free, taking a boob-themed truck to festival goers in a field near you.

Supporting a dynamic, small but mighty charity like CoppaFeel! was a no-brainer, not only because I've had the most eye-opening, inspiring time working there so far in 2021, but because for all of the people who are reading this (and who have made it this far), it's something that you can support by welcoming chest love into your minds, and opening up your wallets in it's name, today and for the rest of your life.

But, it doesn't stop there. I know how many people are doing amazing things for charity right now, and that there are so many brilliant causes out there that need support, as does the whole charity sector as we move through and beyond good old Covid. That's why, for every individual donation to this page, I will be making a personal donation, in your name, to two more amazing organisations close to my heart; Crohn's & Colitis UK and Dementia UK. I hope that in this small way I can support the amazing work in health and wellbeing championed by so many organisations and individuals, through the pandemic and beyond.

So, expect updates of sore legs, post-run Gail's pastries and some good facts about chest-checking thrown in over the next six months. Please donate to CoppaFeel! if you can; I am so grateful for every single donation, it will truly change lives.