Construction has begun on a new £100 million Accident & Emergency unit at Dorset County Hospital, a vital service for residents, families, and visitors across the county. This project represents a huge step forward for our community.

Our local Poundbury Rotary Club is raising funds to help purchase additional life-saving equipment for the new unit — items such as a mobile ventilator and other specialist equipment that are not funded by the NHS.

With that in mind, our daughter Ella came up with a slightly crazy idea… why don’t Mum, Dad and Ella run the Rome Marathon to raise money?

A marathon has actually been on Emma’s bucket list for the past 30 years — an itch she finally decided it was time to scratch! Ella, perhaps against her better judgement, thought she could juggle university studies while training for a marathon.

Fast forward to this week and it’s suddenly very real. After completing around 400 training miles, we’re flying to Rome on Friday and will be running the Rome Marathon on Sunday 22nd March.

We’d love to take this opportunity to raise as much as possible to help provide essential equipment for the new A&E unit in our local hospital in Dorchester.

If you are able to support us, any donation — big or small — would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you so much for your support