I'm very proud to have become the Chief Executive of the UK-based charity Prisoners Abroad earlier this year, and it is an amazingly unique and vital human rights and welfare charity.

Find out more about the challenge I'm taking on below.

If you'd prefer to donate in another way than through JustGiving, please email fundraising@prisonersabroad.org.uk.

There's also updates posted further on down this page with how my training is going, and you can follow my progress on social media - I'm tweeting on X/Twitter and posting updates on LinkedIn too.

Why am I raising money for Prisoners Abroad?

Like all charities at the moment, it's a particularly challenging time financially. But that's massively outweighed by the challenges that British people in prison overseas face.

People in prison don't often get much public support, and similarly issues overseas are often too easily disregarded.

Which is why I'm so inspired by what we do at Prisoners Abroad. We provide life-saving humanitarian aid, advice and emotional support to people affected by overseas imprisonment.

Our support genuinely is life saving - whether that be providing access to vitamins to supplement inadequate food diets, ensuring access to clean water and arranging emergency medical care.

And some of the stuff we do, most people take for granted. We provide freepost envelopes so that people can keep in touch with home. We send books, magazines and newspapers so that people have something in English to read, help sustain their mental health and reduce their isolation.

We make sure each and every one of our service users receives a card on their birthday and at Christmas - making sure they know people care about them.

We support people in prison no matter where they are in the world, from the moment we know they are being detained, and no matter why they're being detained.

We also provide much-needed support to family members to cope with the trauma, providing one to one support, hosting family days, support groups and information sessions.

We are also there to support people before they are released and ultimately when they are released and set foot on British soil. We help people find somewhere to stay, provide grants for food and travel, and help them get the essential things in place to help them build a positive future.

Quite simply, no other charity does this work. We are unique.

But to continue to be there for people in prison overseas and their loved ones, we need to raise vital funds.

That’s why I’m taking on a personal challenge and raising money in aid of Prisoners Abroad.

By donating, you will be part of saving lives, protecting human rights and give hope to British people all over the world affected by overseas imprisonment.

What am I doing?

To raise money, I'm taking on what is without doubt my most difficult personal fundraising challenge yet!

I live in Lincolnshire, and my hometown is Hull. So on the 17th and 18th November, I'm planning to run the 52 miles between the two.

The first day will be about 30 miles, before staying over near Scunthorpe and recharging the batteries, before the second leg of just under 22 miles.

The furthest I've run before this is when I did the London Marathon in 2010, but unfortunately I collapsed after 24 miles. After a bit of medical attention, I managed to walk the last couple of miles. That experience is a helpful reminder to me of how difficult one marathon is, never mind two in two days.

How will your money help?

No challenge that I take on could match the scale of the isolation, desperation and life-threatening conditions that many British people find themselves in when being detained in prisons overseas, but hopefully you can see how much of a personal challenge this will be for me.

And your donation will make a huge difference to the work of the charity:

Thanks for reading about the challenge that I'm taking on, and a huge thank you if you feel able to make a donation.

If you are interested in learning more about Prisoners Abroad's work, please do drop me a message. Thank you.

About JustGiving

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. You can choose to only donate to Prisoners Abroad and opt not to donate any money to JustGiving - that means 100% of your donation will go to Prisoners Abroad. Once you donate, they'll send your money directly to Prisoners Abroad.