We three siblings - Catherine, Sophie and Charlie - are running the Hackney Half Marathon on Sunday 19 May to raise funds for Hackney Migrant Centre.

Can we do it? Only with your help!

It’s hard to imagine a time of more fear and persecution for migrants in this country. While we’ll be out enjoying the sun, crowds and bands along the race route, more and more refugees and asylum seekers are being forced into hiding for fear of being rounded up and sent to detention centres or pushed onto planes heading for Rwanda.

The Hackney Migrant Centre is a small charity offering free advice on immigration, housing, welfare and access to healthcare. In the face of the government's Hostile Environment policy, their work is vital to the basic survival of some of the most vulnerable people in London. They work in circumstances that are becoming more challenging every week, as human rights are sacrificed in the hope of electoral gains.

With a combined age of 137, we three are unlikely to break any half-marathon records but we’ll be giving it our best, hauling our middle-aged bodies around 13.1 miles of East End roads in a show of compassion for some of the most persecuted people in Hackney.

We thank you for opening your hearts and purses to share our care, concern and belief that everyone deserves safety.

*Justgiving will try and charge you a 15% fee which we think is pretty cheeky. You do not need to pay it - just "enter custom amount" - to avoid the fee. But do tick GiftAid if you can, and the government will add 25%, which would be some kind of daft offset against the millions they are spending on tyrannising migrants.