So picture the scene, it's 1984, I'm 12 and in the school assembly as a rather overweight kid and our headmaster has announced he's doing the 4th London Marathon for charity. I hated sport at school, PE was my nemesis! I never thought within a lifetime I would come to take up and enjoy running, then end up taking on this challenge myself! Oh, what 40 years can do!

I started my running journey in this great sport 10 years ago inspired by my wife, Stefanie who started to run the Race for Life and took on the marathon this year. We cheered her on and were quite blown away by the crowds and positive energy both on both sides of the barriers!

I've joined team Whizz Kidz, the UK’s leading charity supporting young wheelchair users up to 25 years old. We all do an amazing thing every day; to stand and be mobile, from walking around the house to running a marathon, we take it for granted just being able to get around on our own two feet.

Over 75,000 young people in the UK need to use a wheelchair to be mobile and unfortunately, they cannot access the equipment that meets their needs through local services. Whizz Kidz are there for all of them. They empower young wheelchair users with the equipment, support, and confidence-building experiences they need to take an active role in society. The Whizz Kidz goal is to create a movement for progress towards a more open and accessible world which is luckily beginning to happen day by day.

I do hope you can support me and Whizz Kidz in this challenge. I appreciate times are tough at the moment and anything you can give will be so much appreciated by me and Whizz Kidz to achieve my goal of a fundraising target of £2000... although we know the marathon is 26.2 miles, its also 42.2 km, so if you divide this distance by our target, I have a goal of around £45 per km. Please be as generous as you can and please accept my upmost thanks in advance. I really look forward to taking on this momentous undertaking in 2024... Running 5km to 10km was relatively easy, from 10k to half marathon was a challenge and to double that, I'll need all the cheering I can get! And early morning dark wet runs in training! 

Many thanks

Phillip