Although affiliated to Headway UK, Leicestershire, Leicester and Rutland Headway does not receive any funding from them and given changes to local authority and health funding, and the reduction in grant funding due to years of austerity, they continue to face a significant funding challenge. They compete nationally and locally for donations with the big hitters; worthy causes like Age Concern, Cancer Research, The British Heart Foundation and Loros. Recently I was pleased to see that Asda in Oadby had accepted them for their green token scheme, until I went to the store and saw how many tokens were in the collection box next to theirs for The Air Ambulance.

I gave up running three decades ago and to complete 10k will challenge my sixty-two year old body and mind.

So on behalf of service users, staff and trustees I would like to thank you all for your contributions.