Lawrence is raising funds for Brighterway - Brighterway is dedicated to enhancing patient care at Southern Health by raising funds to provide support beyond the NHS budget. With your assistance, we can improve care, experiences, and outcomes for all our patients every year.

I have always been a keen runner, and when I was at school I competed at regional and national running events. In more recent years, I have continued to run since leaving school and when I began working as a teacher, I co-led my school's running club. At first I mainly ran mid-distance events, with my strongest performance being at the 800m distance when I was able to compete at the Mason Trophy regional athletics championships in Birmingham; running a time of 2:10.45 in 2017. However, as I grew older, I became more interested in long-distance events, and I am now training for the 10k and half-marathon distances.

One little known fact about me is that I used to be part of the Royal Marine Cadets, and I even went down to Lympstone to participate in their summer camp in 2018 - where I won the Phil Guy memorial race on the last day of camp.

I am running the Great South Run both to encourage others to pick up long-distance running, and also to help support the NHS that is a backbone to the communities that I worked in.

I am most looking forward to raising funds for the NHS and supporting the community, as well as seeing some of my old work colleagues and university friends who are also running the Great South Run this year for various charities.