As some of you know, my father, Neal Turner passed away this year. As a water and environmental engineer he understood the challenges involved surrounding the practical side of providing safe water and sanitation in the challenging conditions in the countries where WaterAid works. He had supported WaterAid's work for many years and I think it will be fitting to run in honour of him.

Although I have been running for a while, I have never attempted a whole marathon! I think the training will be tough but worth it to enable me to cross that finishing line on Sunday 21st April 2013 knowing I've helped some of the poorest people have access to clean, safe water - something I'm sure most of us take for granted.

Remember that:

• 783 million people don't have access to safe water
• 2.5 billion people live without safe, clean toilets
• A child dies every 20 seconds from water-related diseases

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

£25 would help provide safe water from a new water point connected to a borehole.

£50 would help provide a motor to pump safe water from a borehole to the community.

£90 would help pay to drill a borehole to reach a water source deep underground.

So please dig deep and donate now.