Ilaria Bevan and Madeline Silton met during a cross-country club social in our first year of undergraduate study at the University of St. Andrews. We initially connected over our mutual love of running and fitness, which has remained the foundation of our five-year friendship. Running a half marathon is something we talked about for a long time, but we never thought we would complete it together at the same time.

But, when the opportunity to run the Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday, 8 October, for The Chain of Hope appeared, we could not think of a better cause to support.

We are thrilled to be sharing The Chain of Hope's mission of providing access to top-quality medical treatment for children with heart diseases to children globally through this friendship-running challenge.

It is estimated that as many as 15 million children die or remain severely ill every year through potentially treatable or preventable cardiac diseases. Chain of Hope exists to provide children from developing countries affected by life-threatening heart conditions with the medical treatment to save their lives.