Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

We are Gemma, Karen Sue and Shade,  Team Surrey SPARKlers, 4
women who all work at Surrey Sports Park in Guildford, and we are running the
Hampton Court Half Marathon on 17th February 2019 as a team. We hope to raise
£1000 for Arthritis Research.

We are all ordinary women, our collective age is 193 years,
and all of us has our own reason for taking on this challenge. We have various
levels of running experience and all want to use the training and the run
itself to boost our confidence, help with maintaining good mental as well as
physical health and hopefully to show that no matter your age or level of
fitness, the right support and advice can help almost anyone achieve something
they didn’t expect.

As women we all have issues that have affected our
motivation to get and keep fit over the past few years – anxiety, the
menopause, a miscarriage, depression, poor work life balance and physical
health issues. You can hear more about these as we go through our training over
the next 15 weeks and we hope to reach the finish line having raised £1000 for
a charity that means something personal to all of us.

Arthritis Research is an amazing charity which raises much
needed funding to develop
breakthrough treatments, campaign relentlessly for arthritis to be seen as a
priority, challenge how people see arthritis and ensure that everyone has
access to the best information, advice and support they need, whenever they
need it. The extent of arthritis in the UK is huge, with 400,000 people living
with rheumatoid arthritis and 8.75 million having sought treatment for
osteoarthritis. As with us, most people will know someone who suffers from this
debilitating disease. A massive thank you from Gemma, Karen, Sue and Shade for
giving whatever you can.