I have always wanted to run a marathon and having been training for this year's Berlin marathon since the beginning of the year, I am under no illusion of the size of this challenge. Like rhinos, I am built to be dangerous over short distances but am not naturally suited to long-distance running. I have put a lot of time and effort into my training (which has already involved two injuries that I have had to recover from) and as of 10 July, I am giving up alcohol until the run in order to shift a few more kilos and to make getting up for those early morning long, training runs a little easier. For those of you who know me, you will know what a sacrifice that is for me!

I want to use this challenge to raise money for the Transport Links Community (TLC), a charity that my father has been involved with as a Trustee for several years. Their work is extremely important and supports something that I believe is incredibly important, namely using the research and funding that developed countries are fortunate to have and spreading this knowledge to developing countries who do not possess the infrastructure that we have. You can read more about TLC below.

TLC is a UK charity that saves the lives of children and adults in the developing world who suffer from life-threatening end stage kidney disease. TLC offers teaching and advice, and carry out living kidney transplants, sharing knowledge with local medical teams in a variety of countries - so that sustainable transplant programmes become a possibility for the future. This gives the chance of a normal life again for people with kidney failure, and gives a healthy family member the chance to help their relative.