Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. Thanks also to those who donated two years ago before I succumbed to a calf tear 2 weeks before the race.

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. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

On 9th February 2016 our second son, Alexander, was born at St George's Hospital, Tooting. It was immediately apparent there was an issue with his lip which hadn't been picked up in any pregnancy scans. We had no idea what was wrong until a doctor informed us Alexander had an incomplete unilateral cleft lip. A quick bit of research informed us it was treatable through surgery and our journey with CLAPA (Cleft Lip and Palate Association) began.

Within weeks we had visited the South Thames Cleft Team at St Thomas' Hospital meeting the amazing team led by lead Plastic Surgeon Norma Timoney. The team consisted of cleft surgeons, orthodontists, dentists, speech/language therapists and psychologists. Luckily for us Alexander had one of the mildest forms of cleft lip and his palate was intact. Alexander was operated on at 10 months old and made a quick recovery (see photographs above). Others are no so fortunate and have multiple operations in their early years before being discharged. CLAPA will continue to support all children up to 16 years old and will offer further treatments up to 20 years old.

The statistics say 1 in 700 babies around the world will be born with a cleft lip and/or palate. There is no one cause of cleft lip and/or palate. Most of the time, a cleft is caused by genetic and environmental factors coming together in a way that cant be predicted or prevented.

I entered the ballot for London Marathon 2019 thinking with a 1 in 24 chance I was probably going to miss out. I was wrong. I decided I would like to give something back to CLAPA for the wonderful work they do having experienced it first hand.

Please support me and my chosen charity CLAPA.

Thank you

Mark