Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I have been lucky enough to get a place in the London Marathon through the ballot and am taking this opportunity to raise money for the Anna Crossman Trust for Kids in Kerala. 

The charity was set up in memory of Anna, a university friend who tragically died while a group of us were on holiday in 2013. It was inspired by Anna's stay in Kochi, in the southern Indian state of Kerala, when she was on her gap year aged 18. Anna worked as a teaching assistant at the Auxilium School and Prathyasha Bhavan Orphanage in February and March 2011.

The 650 children at the school are aged 5-16, and are from poor families, with parents typically working as fishermen, tailors or rickshaw drivers. The orphanage is home to around 50 girls aged 4-18 from desperately traumatic backgrounds; they have suffered bereavement, abuse, exploitation and mental and physical cruelty.

Your donations can make a tremendous difference to these children by helping fund their education (many schools in India charge fees), provide much needed medical treatment and counselling, and support refurbishments to the orphanage. 

My aim is to run the Marathon in 3 hours 30 minutes while hopefully raising several thousand pounds for a very personal and worthy cause. 

Thank you for reading!