Since last summer I've been volunteering with the YMCA on a new (to London) programme called Y's Girls, which is designed to match girls aged 9-14 with trained mentors to help them build their confidence, give them tips and tools for handling tricky situations and help with any specific problems they have.

A lot of the kids have issues at home or school that mean maybe they don't get to have much fun, they might be really shy or anxious, be young carers, have physical/mental health problems or would benefit from this in another way. We get them out of the house, give them someone to chat to confidentially and break up the routine a bit.

The kid I look after is a little sweetie. She's a young carer, quiet but so funny when she gets chatting. She's not that comfortable in big, loud, busy places and could do with a little confidence boost going into a new school in September. We go bowling, watch movies, or just have a smoothie in a café and it's really nice.

I want to help the YMCA out so they can expand programmes like this, and so here we are. Ian did the London marathon a few years ago but kind of hates running and hasn't laced up since. I'm a very fair weather runner, with not much more than a few parkruns to my name, so needless to say 21.1k is a MASSIVE challenge for us both. We go to the gym at 7am to do interval sessions on sad treadmills (I know, who are we), and it will all get way worse over the next couple of months.

Last time I attempted a half marathon I stopped short of the full distance, sat on the ground behind a pub in Greenwich, cried for quite a while and then had to get a Lime bike as I couldn't walk the 10 minutes home.

Please consider the pain to come, and help us help this brilliant cause. We're so appreciative of your support, thank you so much ♥️

Amy + Ian xxx