Over the past three years we’ve slowly built up our running and completed a number of 10k races and half marathons. It’s been fun, challenging, and sometimes difficult to fit around work, parenting and everyday life — but we’ve loved the journey.

On 7th June we’ll be running the Swansea Half Marathon, which is especially meaningful to us because Swansea is where we both went to university and where we met.

For this race we wanted to push ourselves further and raise money for a charity that means a lot to us: Smile for ME.

This charity is close to our hearts because of our amazing friend and neighbour, Becca. Becca was diagnosed with ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) at 17, although she had been suffering with symptoms since she was 15. ME is a chronic illness that many people still know very little about, and it’s often misunderstood as simply “being tired”.

In reality, ME can involve extreme fatigue, constant pain, nausea, dizziness, and a racing heart even after small amounts of activity. Many people describe it as feeling like having flu every day without relief.

Despite living with this illness for over 10 years, Becca remains one of the most positive, kind and thoughtful people we know. She’s a wonderful friend and neighbour who does so much for our daughters — making handmade gifts, doing puzzles and crafts with them, and reading stories together. Seeing someone so thoughtful face such a debilitating illness every day is incredibly hard, which is why supporting this charity means so much to us.

Smile for ME sends care packages and small gifts to people living with ME, as well as their carers and families. These acts of kindness can make a huge difference to someone who may be having a particularly difficult day, week or month. These packages are funded entirely through donations.

We’ll be running 13.1 miles along Swansea Bay to the Mumbles and back. Being Wales, it will probably rain, our legs will definitely hurt, and we’ll likely feel like we can’t go on at times. But we’re lucky — after the race we’ll recover with some rest, Epsom salts, and probably a well-earned pint or two.

For people like Becca, however, this level of exhaustion and pain can be a daily reality.

If you’re able to donate any amount, big or small, it would mean the world to us and will help Smile for ME continue supporting those living with ME.

Thank you so much for your support.