I spent time working in East Africa fifteen years ago and saw at first hand the difference that clean water makes to whole communities. At present, more than 1 in 8 people in the world don't have access to safe drinking water and 1 out of every 5 deaths in children under the age of 5 worldwide is due to a water-related disease. Indeed in developing countries nearly 80% of illness is linked to poor water and sanitation conditions. By improving access to clean water and sanitation we can improve the health of a whole community for generations.

I’m raising funds to meet the costs of providing clean water to communities in East Africa - this might involve digging boreholes, equipping wellheads or installing rainwater harvesting systems. The aim is to ensure that the communities never have to walk miles for dirty, infected water again.

I am seeking to raise funds towards the next project which will involve the installation of a rainwater harvesting system for a school/community in the Masai Mara. To do this I am going to try to run a double marathon (53 miles) non-stop at the end of June. Please be as generous as you can; I will need all the motivation I can to complete this ridiculous challenge! It costs around £1,000 to install a rainwater harvesting system in a typical school so we hope that people will help us beat this target! 100% of funds received will be transferred to one of our digging partners and will only be spent on project delivery in Africa.