Update on Halloween 2011! I did it! Ran today's Dublin Marathon, avoided most of the rain, and got a personal best. All around result! And you've all been so amazing generous here, in memory of Siobhan Dowd. This page will stay up until the end of November, so you're more than welcome to donate. And thank you all so much.

UPDATE!! A very bad (but healing!) leg injury forced me to pull out of London at the last moment, but by God, I said I was going to run a marathon and I'm going to run a bloody marathon. I'm now entered in the Dublin Marathon on Halloween. Wish me luck! And donate, why not?

For the 2011 London Marathon, I'm running for Breast Cancer Campaign.

Why? Well, without even going outside my own immediate acquaintances, I've known four women who've had breast cancer, which is astonishing for all the wrong reasons. In addition, my next novel, A Monster Calls (out in May, just after the marathon), is a completion of the final work of the brilliant, award-winning writer Siobhan Dowd, who died of breast cancer in 2007.

Breast Cancer Campaign funds research for causes and prevention of breast cancer and I'm delighted to be running for them.

And here's hoping I can finish this marathon without falling over and giving myself a permanent scar on my knee. Like I did last time.