I am raising money for two charities that are very close to mine and my wife's hearts, SSAFA and the RAF Benevolent Fund.

Whilst based in Germany in 2015, Deena and I found out we were expecting a baby boy. Everything was perfect, it was a normal, healthy pregnancy. Deena's waters broke the morning of New Years day while we were out feeding the ducks with our then 2yr old daughter. As embarrassed as Deena was, we were both excited and nervous as we knew that very soon we would have our little boy in our arms. On the morning of the 2nd January 2016 our beautiful son Thomas unexpectedly passed away during a difficult birth.

Throughout one of the most painful times that no parent should have to go through, both SSAFA and the RAFBF stepped up to aid us. Their support relieved some of the pressure and took the weight off our shoulders so that we could grieve. We will never forget their invaluable support and we would like to fundraise for them in memory of Thomas.

I am deploying shortly for 7 months and during this deployment I will be taking part in the Lands End to John O' Groats virtual run 8 (#LEJOG8). Each day I will chip away at the 874 miles and my aim is to complete this before the end of my deployment. Any money raised will be split 50/50 between our charities and donated on behalf of Thomas' memory. My bib number is 21253 if anyone would like to follow my progress on endtoend.run, although I will be sharing the progress frequently on facebook and strava.

Please if you can, help me get to my aim of raising £1000. Any amount would make a huge difference and would help these charities to aid more forces families. My wife and I would be very grateful for your support, as would SSAFA and the RAFBF.

Thank you.

Matt