You may or may not know but I've had a couple of, minor, health issues over the last couple of years.

It was a real pain in the arse!😂

It stopped me doing so many things, including running, for 18 months.

Thanks to all the hard work and care from the Countess I am now fully recovered.

During my recovery I always had a target in mind.

The target - a Santa Dash.

A charity run where all entrants are dressed as Santa. It just worked out with my recovery timescale.

I picked Chesters as it supports the work of the Countess (the hospital that fixed me), as well as the Hospice of the Good Shepherd (as all hospices do, they provide amazing care and support in people's darkest times).

So I'll be running Chester's Santa Dash Sunday 7th December.

It is 3.7k so I thought I'd add my own extra challenge - pushing Albert, my amazing 2 year old, around the course.

Chester Santa Dash then decided to add their own little challenge. Making, at least, half of the 3.7k up hill!😲

So that's a 3.7k run, mostly up hill, whilst pushing a 2 year old round in his pram. Easy....🫣😱

Nevertheless, my mind has been made up - I'm running it with Albert regardless.

If you can spare a few quid it would mean so much. Every penny will help the Countess and the Good Shepherd continue their good work.

Thanks for reading.

Merry Christmas,

Mark and Albert

XXX

(Hospice of the Good Shepherd provides its services free of charge to its patients and costs £5.6 million to run each year with just 17% of the funding received coming from statutory sources. The remaining 83% is raised from a range of fundraising activities and the support of the generous local community in Cheshire.

The Countess Charity is the official charity at The Countess of Chester Hospital. The team works with the local community, corporates and grant making trusts to raise money for over 80 different funds across the hospital each one making a real difference to patient care. The Countess Charity exists not to fund patient care, but to enhance and improve it.)