Dear all

I am fully aware that there are a huge amount of people raising money for amazing causes at the moment and also that times are tight for everyone.

But I hope you will forgive me for asking you to head to the piggy bank yet again for a cause I have always loved but never done nearly enough for. So please bear with me…

As you will know, Citi have had the enormous misfortune of being my employer for the last 17 years. During that time, I’ve been lucky enough to meet a great number of lovely people. None more so than Mustapha Gore, who has been our receptionist for longer than he would care to remember and is, quite comfortably, one of the most amazing people I have ever met.

A constant source of positivity and kindness, he is the very best of us all. He was born in the Sudan, taken to Uganda as a child and then had to escape the Amin regime to go to Kenya, before coming to the UK. He didn’t see his parents for three years during this period, as a small boy.

About 13 years ago, I got chatting to him when I saw he was sketching something. He explained he was planning on building a school, Greenacres, in Uganda, on some land owned by his mother. Fast forward to now and there are 380 children being educated there, 270 graduates and 10 university graduates and he has nearly finished a senior school, which will house a further 360 pupils. It is, very simply, a story of human triumph against all the financial odds and has changed countless lives of those that have passed though it’s doors.

If you have 3 mins, do please watch the below video from former pupils and you will understand the impact it has really had. https://youtu.be/6F5kDfIIlQQ

Due to the fact that I was born with the body that would shame a nonagenarian with a limp, I sadly can’t run. And that would be far more impressive than what I am attempting. In a very, very small way, I am however trying to do something that will (hopefully) prevent me for being in traction for no longer than 2 weeks.

I have therefore signed up for the Cotswold Way 47km Ultra Challenge on June 25th with my girlfriend, Lulu. Unfortunately, (or fortunately), she can do moonwalk these kind of things but I definitely can’t and I also rather missed the small key in the word “Ultra” in the title. This means that this is a rather keener challenge than the minorly extended ambulation I last took on as a 13 year old. Apparently, there are hills involved. Far too many than I would sensibly like to contemplate…..If therefore, you felt able to support us both in this effort, I would be enormously grateful. I am almost certain that my subsequent inability to move will cause endless entertainment to anyone that sees me for multiple subsequent weeks but I know, without hesitation, that it will be entirely worth it.

With massive thanks in advance.

A