My younger brother Kieran and I consistently shared the same identity as children. Born on the same day 3 years apart, we were both goal keepers, both supported Manchester United, and both had the same outfits during family holidays. However on one family holiday during the summer of 2010, our personalities inherited a permanent difference. My younger brother aged 10, was quickly losing weight, dehydrated and went into ketoacidoses. He was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes. His diagnosis forced us to move back from our family home in Spain, where we spent the last 4 years, in order to provide him with more stable medical support in the UK.

He is now 25 and thriving as a journalist at a major newspaper, however post his diagnosis I had an urge to discover more about what T1D is, and how we can find a cure. In 2014 I spent a week at the Juvenile Diabetes Cure Alliance in New York interning at their HQ, learning the operations of running a charity, fundraising and campaign strategies, alongside understanding their mission statement: to cure T1D in the next 15 years.

This is why JDRF are the charity I want to represent in London Marathon 2025. The focus of finding a cure and prevention to Diabetes is my families goal. Seeing my brother Kieran go from daily finger pricks and self injections as a pre-teen to self managed, automated blood monitors and pumps, I know the impact of research and innovation has on the lives of diabetics. In 2020, I ran London Landmarks Half Marathon during Lockdown for Diabetes UK raising £535 in just a few weeks. I since found a passion for running, competing in the Big Half in 2022, and now starting my own instagram page @doughthedistance, where I run long distances to the best bakeries in London to support training for races such as Hackney & Solihull Half Marathons, alongside Malaga Marathon in December 2024.

JDRF are committed to eradicating type 1 diabetes and its effects for everyone in the UK with type 1, and at risk of developing it. To work towards a day when there is no more type 1 JDRF are:

- Funding world-class research approved and administered by an international research programme to cure, treat and prevent type 1 diabetes

- Making sure research moves forward and treatments are delivered as fast as possible

- Giving support and a voice to people with type 1 and their families

- Joining a global movement to create a world without type 1

Every £ raised makes a huge difference, so please give whatever you can to support me and JDRF.