Dearest friends and family,

Firstly, FYI: JustGiving doesn't allow splitting donations so if you could be so kind as to donate to both "Team Members" on this page - they are both me, though one is for the Charlie Watkins Foundation and the other is for Brake - I would be hugely grateful.

As some of you may know, I am running the Berlin marathon on Sunday, 24th September 2023. For those who didn’t, this may come as a surprise, as I am no long-distance runner, nor have I ever been… Until now.

If this isn’t enough to encourage you to donate, then I should mention the worthy causes I am running for. Both Brake and The Charlie Watkins Foundation do untold good across the United Kingdom and East Anglia in helping bereaved families and vulnerable people suffering with mental illnesses, respectively. Both are hugely important to my family and me.

Please find their website here for further information:

https://cwfoundation.co.uk/

Here, your contribution will help raise funds for the Charlie Watkins Foundation. The CWF provides funding to projects that support young people suffering from mental illness and its associated issues.

https://www.brake.org.uk/

Brake is a national road safety charity that cares for road victims and campaigns for safer roads for all.

It has been over six years since I’ve last asked for money for these two worthy causes; it would mean a great deal to the Charlie Watkins Foundation, Brake and myself, if we could do some more good …

I hope you can be as generous as possible.

For those interested:

The Berlin marathon is famously flat and for runners, it’s a chance to go low, for personal bests, to break the three-hour mark, or set a world record - if you’re a Kenyan. Sadly, as someone incapable of any of those feats, nor a Kenyan, this will be about hanging in there and posting something around the 4-hour mark.

Training is currently on schedule to do exactly that. And with just two weeks to go, your donation will help hugely in the final push. However, nowhere else will it be felt more then on race day: as I jog past the Berghain queue, the doggers in Tiergarten, along the Spree, or under Brandenburg, dwelling on my split times, Pheidippides and what lifelong tendinitis might feel like; my thoughts will also be on why I am doing this, for what and who for.

So, a massive thank you in advance.

A