Hello my name is Phil and as a non-typical runner (55 - I
don’t get any younger and just under 15 stone  -95Kg for you
youngsters :)) this is my annual charity challenge to raise money for
"Invest in ME".

My 19 year old daughter Zoe has this debilitating condition
called ME (also known as CFS - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and this is my annual charity raising event. You may recall I ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon in London in October 2018, The Great North Run in September 2019 and am again running the Great North Half Marathon on September 12^th this year to raise money for this under funded charity. Charity runs in 2020 was a "write off" for the all too reported reasons - so raising as much as I can in 2021 is even more important! 

ME is a horrible and poorly understood illness. 250,000 people in the UK have ME and Millions more worldwide and yet we don't know what
causes it and there is no cure or effective treatment. 25% are so severely affected that they are house or bed bound. 

Sadly my daughter is one of the 25%, her ME came from a flu
infection in February 2014 that has never gone away. 

Before Zoe got ill she was loving life, went to school, had
dancing lessons, was a Scout and played the flute. She was normal, active and life for this 12 year old was fun. 

When she got ill she had to give up all her hobbies and drop out of school - she was home schooled and managed to complete GCSEs and A-Levels with amazing results and is now about to start a part time undergraduate degree with the Open University, this demonstrates her fabulous ability to focus on important aspects of her limited life.

Her symptoms include permanent exhaustion, struggles with nausea, poor concentration and blood circulation issues. She uses a wheelchair because she is so weak and gets headaches that she describes as "her brain squeezing out of her eyeballs" She gets hot and cold flushes and gets regular bouts of dizziness.

Every day she has to plan future energy usage to avoid flare
ups but the symptoms are always there. She can't sleep it off and exercise makes it all worse. 

Raising money for M.E research has never been so crucial. Research suggests at least 2 million people in the UK have suffered from long covid (June 2021) and expectations are that unfortunately some if not many of the more long term cases may go on to develop M.E or other autoimmune illnesses as a result of virus damage. There is currently no effective treatment available. Please help me raise money to help
the growing proportion of the population developing and suffering with M.E.

Some of you may already know a little about the charity I'm
fundraising for but for those of you who don't know here's a little about them. 

Invest in ME Research is an independent UK charity finding,
funding and facilitating a strategy of biomedical research into Myalgic
Encephalomyelitis (ME or ME/CFS).The charity is run by volunteers - patients or parents of children with ME - with no paid staff. Overheads are kept to a minimum and all funds raised go to promoting education of, and funding for biomedical research into, ME. Their efforts
are focused on setting up a UK Centre of Excellence for ME which will provide proper examinations, diagnosis and in time treatment(s) and a cure(s).

Thank you for taking the time to visit my Just Giving page
and an enormous thank you to anyone who has/will donate as every little helps!