Brilliant! a round of a applause to you all for reaching the magic £700, thanks for all of your support. 

I finished!  My time was a slight improvement on last year's result (1hr 58mins and 8 seconds).  I can still take donations up until the new year so please could you donate to reach the target for Simon.  Thanks again for all donations so far, they really are appreciated. If you would like to see my official time you can do so at www.greatrun.org if you go to the results page and enter my name.

Hi and thank you for visiting my Great North Run  fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor me online.  It's really easy to do and I would very happy if you could help me reach my target of £700 (if I don't reach £700 I have to make up the difference myself!), this will spur me on to get around the 13.1 mile course on the 5th October 2008, I hope!! 

Thanks to all the people who sponsored me last year in raising £1297.30, I hope you are still as generous this time around!

I am taking part in the 2008 Great North Run in memory or Simon Foddering who was a pilot I knew who was tragically killed in the Morecambe Bay Helicopter Tragedy on the 27th December 2006 at the age of just 33, (leaving 2 young children - Chloe and Kieran) along with his co-pilot Stephen Potton and five gas rig workers.  

If it were not for the dedication of the Fleetwood, Barrow and Lytham lifeboat teams, six of the seven families would not have had the chance to say farewell to their lost loved ones.  The men and women of the RNLI worked for over 24 hours and battled through a series of elements to bring those souls back to shore.  

Simon achieved many things in his short life, namely serving his country in the Prince of Wales Regiment before completing his training and becoming one of the youngest pilots in the army air fleet serving in Northern Ireland, Cyprus, Germany and Belize, before leaving in 2003 to join the North Wales Air Ambulance and later in the North West Air Ambulance based in Blackpool.  

Sian Lloyd of North Wales Air Ambulance said: "Simon was a fun, outgoing type of chap with a really excellent sense of humour, always ready to have a laugh and a joke." He was very popular and well respected and he will be sorely missed."

So why raise money for the Lifeboats?

I was compelled to do something in Simon's honour and raise money for the RNLI, as they were the ones trying to save his life on that fateful evening.  Simon was a keen fundraiser himself, running in the London Marathon himself and on one occasion he appeared on TV with ITV's Paul Crone raising money for their NW Air Ambulance appeal.

Simon has saved so many lifes, so I feel the RNLI would be a welcome choice for Simon.

So please, please, please sponsor me and help those who risk their own lives to save others.  

Please note that the RNLI do not get any government funding and rely soley on donations.       

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure.  It's the most efficient way to sponsor me :- The RNLI will receive your money faster and, if you are a taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to the gift at no cost to you.  All funds go direct to the RNLI through this website.

Please note - I am funding my own travel, accommodation, equipment etc, so all donations will go straight to the RNLI only.    

Many thanks for your support

Karl Webber

Update 21/05/08 - Completed the Great Manchester Run on the 18th (10k) and finished in a time of  51 minutes 28 seconds.  I'm feeling fitter and getting back into the swing of training!  Sponsorship is going quite well thanks to work colleagues, I think I will do very well to match last year's total - but I'll give it a go!  

Update - 3/10/08 - Well I've just done my last training run and I feel pretty good.  Hopefully I can match last years time at least.  Thanks to all those who have donated so far.  Look out for me in a yellow RNLI vest on the TV on Sunday morning!