Hello everyone, yes it's time to get your hand in your pocket again - but after the efforts of Captain Tom Moore over the last couple of weeks I think everybody has to be a little inspired.

Firstly thank you for taking the time to visit my fundraising page and I hope you and your families are all staying safe. Also appreciate things may be very tight for some people but any donation greatly appreciated.

So many of you will know that the 2020 London Marathon, set for next Sunday 26th April, has been cancelled. Many hundreds of charities will miss out on the opportunity of raising the funds needed to keep them going and support the relevant people - an estimated shortfall nationally of some £66m. What you may not know is that the organisers have set up the 2.6 Challenge to encourage people to help these charities, particularly the smaller ones, find that shortfall as many may collapse without vital funding.

To achieve our 2.6 Challenge myself and a number of  colleagues will be climbing our drill tower at work, on April 26th, 26times in full fire brigade PPE - a total of 182 floors, 364 flights, 546 metres or 3276 steps.

Of course most of you know why raising money for such a charity is so important to myself and my fiancee Chantelle after her stroke in 2014. The Headway charity has been there from the start, providing funds for Chantelles mum to travel to and from the hospitals in Birmingham and London to her home in Manchester for an extended period. The charity has also been a great support to us over the years with monthly support groups in the Wimbledon, Richmond and Balham areas. These groups offer great support to many people who have suffered head injuries and been an important social setting for both of us.

Of course we know what's happening the rest of the world and particularly in our own country. We all want to help the incredibly brave people serving the NHS, not forgetting the 1000s of front line workers in public transport, pharmacies and supermarkets but if we forget about these smaller charities now when this is all over they simply will not be there to offer the much needed support for years to come.

I would like to take the opportunity to thank my fellow firefighters for helping me raise funds for Headway. There are hundreds of charities that need our support at this time and I am grateful they are behind in supporting one close to me.

I have set a reasonable target of £500 as we only have a week to raise it. I would love for this to go viral and have the "Captain Tom effect" but I'm realistic. However please share this with as many people as you can....you never know! 😉

Thank you for reading and donating.

Stay save

Darren