Last year a friend from my A level physics class, Vicky Watson, found me on facebook. It was great to be back in touch and to share what we had been up to in the intervening years.

I was really moved when she told me about her young son George. He was diagnosed with a serious heart condition and has undergone several major heart operations at Birmingham Children's Hospital - and on one occasion ended up in a critical condition.

George is now doing really well, so as a thank you to the children's hospital Vicky, together with her family and friends, has been tirelessly fundraising to buy equipment for the heart unit. To date she has raised almost £8000!

Last year she put a post on facebook asking if anyone wanted to join her running the Birmingham Half Marathon. After deliberating for a couple of weeks I decided that I would give it a go - I figured that I would have a year to train and as Birmingham is flat it would be quite a nice one to do, and it would give me a good excuse to see Vicky again after all these years! More importantly it would give me the opportunity to raise some money to help children who are desperately ill  - I feel so lucky to have 2 happy and healthy children so this is my way of saying thank you.

Unfortunately my training schedule hasn't quite gone to plan! Anyone who knows me knows that I'm not a natural athlete, and I have had a few obstacles to my training during the last few months that I hadn't anticipated when I signed up - starting a new (full time) job and being diagnosed with asthma! After considering bailing out, I read George's story again and decided to go for it anyway. This is a big ask for me so your support in making it all worthwhile would be greatly appreciated!

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