Five years ago my father in law Les, was diagnosed with Vascular Dementia. Dementia is a progressive illness with symptoms gradually getting worse. As a family over the past five years we've seen first hand the distress and suffering this can cause our loved ones.

This ilness has become more and more prominent and any donations will help fund research into the cause, cure, care and prevention of dementia,to improve treatment for people today and a cure for tomorrow.

Sadly Les, lost his long battle with dementia and passed away in March, but I know he will be with me on Sunday.

I have a ballot place, and therefore don't have to fundraise but decided sometime ago to raise money for this very special charity. 

Although I've run the Marathon twice before I wanted a challenge for my 50th birthday year. This has definatley been the toughest attempt and I haven't run it yet!

Previous times were 10/11 years ago and with a running partner, this time the long runs on my own on Sunday and Wednesdays have been real hard. I know the streets of Croydon, West Wickham, Beckenham, Crystal Palace, Thorton Heath, Mitcham, Sutton and Redhill like the back of my hand! I've put the miles in the tank, now its the countdown to Sunday............