Having secured a place at this year's London Marathon through my running club, Runhead, I wanted to also use it as an opportunity to raise some money for a charity very close to my family and me, Bloodwise.

Bloodwise is a charity that specialises in funding research into all forms of blood cancer, one of which, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia (CLL), my Dad Peter was diagnosed with.

As is common, Dad lived with CLL for several years without needing any treatment. However in August of 2016 Dad began 6 months of Chemotherapy which sent his CLL into remission. This treatment gave Dad an extra year and a half of his life, during which time we were able to share some amazing times, some fun filled holidays and also allowed him the chance to meet his first grandchild, Toby. Without the research and progress made into leukaemia treatment over the past 60 years it is very unlikely that we would have had this time with Dad.

Having contracted Pneumonia towards the end of 2018, Dad was never able to recover fully and after an incredibly difficult 5 months for the whole family with him in and out of hospital, he died in February of 2018. He was also very encouraging about my running and would always greet me after a half marathon with a proud smile, a handshake and a quiet well done. He will very much be in my thoughts as I compete this Sunday.

As I said I have got my place through Runhead, so do not have a set amount that I need to raise, however any money that you could donate
would be hugely appreciated and will go to a brilliant cause. Should you wish to learn more about Bloodwise and the work they do their website can be found here: www.bloodwise.org.uk

Should you wish to follow my progress on the day then my race number is 24864.

Thanks for reading!