I have made the rather foolhardy decision to run the Virgin London Marathon this April. Aside from providing comic relief for anyone lucky enough to see limping my way through the 26.2 mile course, I am also raising money for an exceptionally worthwhile cause: the Mulberry Bush School, a therapeutic residential school in Standlake, Oxfordshire.

Established in 1948, the Mulberry Bush School works with some of the most distressed and vulnerable primary school-age children in the country. These children have already been excluded from several schools. They will often have been neglected, abused, and witnessed things which no child should have to; they will have assumed excessive responsibility at home and, in all probability, never experienced a stable loving family life.

In order to care for some of the children during the school holidays, the school are building a new house in the grounds of the school. This house will have a beautiful new playground and they also plan to install new therapeutic playground equipment in the gardens of all the existing houses. 

You can find out more about the Mulberry Bush School here.