I’m excited to say that in September I’ll be running the Great North Run for Alcohol Concern. Alcohol is an issue that’s close to my heart.

Alcohol is a really big part of many of our lives, and it can be a good thing – but it can do real damage too. Someone in the UK dies every hour as a result of alcohol. It costs the NHS £3.5 billion every year, and there are so many other costs than that – maybe most of all emotional costs to families like mine. There are more than 200,000 kids in the UK growing up with a parent or carer with serious alcohol problems, and those kids suffer – they’re three times more likely to consider suicide, and four times more likely to go on to have drinking problems themselves.

Alcohol Concern is working to change that, through offering information, campaigning to change Government policy, running campaigns like Dry January to change drinking culture, and working to improve treatment so anyone with alcohol problems – and their families – can get the help they need and deserve.

So please sponsor me for this brilliant cause, and help Alcohol Concern to save lives.

Wish me luck, Love Vicky x