I will be running the Virtual London Marathon on Sunday 26th April 2026 for CureMe at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It will be my 18th London Marathon and the 4th time I have run it as a VLM with a total of 5 times for ME charities. Although I have not been fortunate enough to get a place in the main event the VLM also provides the opportunity to support and highlight the urgency of making a difference to the recognition, diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS. It is an opportunity I cannot refuse.

One in five hundred people in the UK alone suffer from ME/CFS. Many people with enduring Long Covid are now being told they have ME/CFS. Many of those with ME have been ignored, misunderstood and misdiagnosed. The misconceptions and stigma surrounding the disease create barriers to research and have caused unnecessary suffering to people directly affected by ME/CFS and their loved ones. Our family is only one of the many, many, many families who suffer and struggle with the emotional, physical, psychological and financial fallout from this devastating disease. As my wife’s daughter put it on her last birthday it is as if she has been stuck in time since she became ill and she knows that she cannot go back to her old life safely. She has to construct a new way of being and that is the hardest thing to do. This has been echoed by some of the people we have met at our regular car boot sales.

We are choosing to fundraise directly for CureME because their mission is to improve recognition, diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS through medical research. They have set up the UKs first ME/CFS Biobank (UKMEB) which provides access to researchers globally. By driving clinical and biomedical research to improve the recognition, diagnosis, and treatment of ME/CFS their hope is one day to find a cure. Such research is critical to make up for years of underfunding. We firmly believe research will make the critical difference for those with ME as has been the case with other illnesses.

Please will you join them and us in this quest?

It is quick, easy and safe to donate using the link on this page. A gift of any amount will make a tangible difference.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my page.