I'm a fit 66 year old, lucky enough to have benefited from a free education up to PhD level. My father, though, passed his exams for grammar school in Yorkshire in the 1920s - but couldn't go. His parents, who had barely afforded to buy a school uniform for his older sister, couldn't afford one for him too. TODAY, in Bawku Municipal District in north eastern Ghana, many children can't even start primary school because their families can’t afford uniforms and basic equipment.

And that's why, on Bank Holiday Monday 1 May, I'm running the Burgess Hill 10k (6 miles) in a Ghanaian school uniform. Your kind sponsorship of me will help the Lovey Foundation (UK), established last year, to send over to its sister community based organisation, the Lovey Foundation in Ghana, the necessary school uniform material, sandals, bags and stationery. (We buy the goods here and ship them - but not any money.)

Since 2013, led by Thomas Lateef Aruk, one of a minority of Bawku people to go to university, the Lovey Foundation has changed 65 young lives so far. In rural Bawku far too many small children, especially girls, break stones, chop firewood and mind livestock, instead of having at least a primary school education. Lovey breaks down social and economic barriers - so that what happened to my father 100 years ago in England can stop happening in rural Ghana.

Equipping a young Ghanaian girl or boy to give up labouring and start school costs no more than one of us taking a child to see a Championship football match. Do visit our website - www.loveyfoundation.org - to learn more and see some unforgettable photos of the difference the Lovey Foundation is making.

Please give as generously as you can, so a pensioner pounding streets in Burgess Hill can stop Bawku children breaking stones instead of living their dream of an education. With your help, by September we aim to increase the number of children supported by the Lovey Foundation into school to 100.

THANK YOU!