On the day of the London marathon, 21st April 2024, it will be ten years to the day that I last got a bear-hug from Dad, saying goodbye outside his and Mum's home on Skye, Easter 2014. On an uncharacteristically sunny Highland day, he was fit and well as always, waving us off as we drove out of sight, heading back to London. Two days later came a stroke out of the blue and I flew back to see him again in hospital before he died on the Sunday.

Dad was always an enthusiastic supporter of my previous charity/sponsorship efforts, so I'm hoping to raise as much money as possible in his memory to support the British Heart Foundation's (BHF's) vital work. BHF funds ground-breaking research into strokes, heart disease, diabetes and vascular dementia, among many other conditions.

"…If you can fill the unforgiving minute / With sixty seconds' worth of distance run..."