Hey!

My name is Luke, I'm 32 and I have never ran longer than 6.5km in my life (before I started training for this event). I am proud to say I am taking on the London Marathon on behalf of The Donkey Sanctuary.

I am the proud Dad of Gracie Rose (1YO) with another little one due in September - yep, you are correct, two under two! I also have a dog, Lenny, who is basically my first born, he's one needy Daddy's boy of a pooch!

The biggest challenge for me will be fitting my training in around my young family, putting in the maximum effort I can, whilst still being present for them (there will be some early starts!). Luckily I have an amazing fiancé, who is an amazing Mum and fully supports what I am trying to achieve.

The London Marathon is something that has been on my bucket list for many years and to be able to run at this event whilst supporting my late Grandad's favourite charity, just makes this moment that much more special.

My Grandad loved donkeys and he loved The Donkey Sanctuary and their cause. He personally adopted Zena, a stunning dark brown donkey, down in Sidmouth. Zena's photo is still proudly displayed at my Gran's house.

The Donkey Sanctuary was his chosen charity at his funeral, not your "typical" charity you would see at a funeral, but that was very much him all over, it was a charity close to his heart and that's all that mattered.

Since my Grandad's passing, my older sister has adopted Zena, to make sure she is supported, ensuring our Grandads legacy continues.

We often asked him why he loved donkeys so much and he would just simply say...

So, when I first decided to apply for the London Marathon via the traditional ballot application route, on completion, alternative routes were suggested by the website, to obtain a place through some of their chosen charities.

The website had a lot of well known charities to choose from but I knew exactly which charity I wanted to run for, I wanted to run for my Grandad's favourite charity! I couldn't find The Donkey Sanctuary on the website but fortunately I found a link of their website to apply directly.

I wasn't successful initially, but I kept in touch with the charity and luck would have it, they had a drop out. I was asked if I would like to take their place and the rest is history!

I feel immensely proud to be given a place to run for The Donkey Sanctuary. I want to do my Grandad proud and to ensure the charity he believed in, is supported for many years to come.

Thank you for reading my story, if you could spare any change for my cause, I would really appreciate it.

Keep coming back to my page as I will be updating this page regularly!