Aston & Cote Pre-School is a charity run by a committee of Parents current and past as well as individuals from the local community. Over the past 12 months we have been raising funds to completely revamp the inadequate outside play area, which we have only part succeeded in doing. This has been a huge challenge and undertaking for the committee these past two years and has been at the expense of not being able to afford any new equipment or climbing frames to go in the new garden.

I am the current Treasurer for the Pre-School and have been performing this role on a voluntary basis for the past 4 academic years, i also work full time as an Accountant at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. At Christmas i took up running for health reasons as i was diagnosed last year with Auto Immune Thyroiditis and after a lot of reading around on the subject i decided to take up running and go gluten light to help alleviate some of the symptoms. Previous to that i had never run (apart from when i was back at school - Which was a very long time ago), and as much as i love sports, i have always hated running! So it's become a bit of a love hate relationship, which i am learning to love.

I decided i needed something to aim for, a personal goal to motivate myself and i am entered to run the Virgin Oxford Half Marathon on Sunday 7th October 2018. Aston and Cote Pre-School is one of my two chosen charities that i am hoping raising much needed funds to furnish the Pre-School garden with a purpose built climbing frame. This is going to cost the Pre-School somewhere in the region of £8,000. We have already raised £5,000 and i am setting and ambitious target of £2,000 to help raise the remaining funds for the climbing frame.

At my current pace i am aiming to finish in 2.5 hours, but i will be chuffed to bits if i can come in under this target.My training began this week and you can follow my progress here on my fundraising page.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story and i hope you will support the Pre-School and I by sponsoring me. Any amount no matter how small is greatly appreciated.