On Sunday 12 October 2025 I'll be running The Oxford Half Marathon for SpecialEffect – a brilliant charity using technology to help people with disabilities experience the joy of gaming. As someone who enjoys gaming and tech, I think their work is seriously cool and worth supporting!

Watch this YouTube video to see an example of the work SpecialEffect do:

SpecialEffect | Bringing George Closer to Home https://youtu.be/kqGPyHcAWwk?si=nvD9QnJbAW5xGKwb

SpecialEffect put fun and inclusion back into the lives of people with physical disabilities by helping them to play video games. There's no one-size-fits-all way of doing this, so their specialist assessment teams match or modify technology to create and loan truly personalised gaming control setups, enabling people of all ages to play the games they love to the very best of their abilities. They share everything they learn through advice and accessibility resources for players and developers across the globe, and all of our support is completely free of charge. They simply aim to do whatever it takes to raise the quality of life for as many disabled gamers as possible, all over the world!

To find out more about the work SpecialEffect do please visit - www.specialeffect.org.uk

I ran my first ever Half Marathon in Brighton earlier this year in 2:10, so the aim is to beat that and get closer to the overall goal of a sub 2 hour finish. You can follow my training on my Strava page: https://www.strava.com/athletes/johnlpayne