I’ve been meaning to do more for a worthy charity. I do give money from time to time, but I haven’t taken that extra step to actually raise any myself. I recently read about a man with a reasonably average income who has made it his ambition to give one million pounds to charity over his lifetime. He does without most things, almost everything, in order to achieve that goal. It’s selfless and commendable.

I’m not going to do that too, but reading that made me want to do more.

So with that in mind I have always wanted to run a marathon and it’s as good a place to start as any. They’ve never been so accessible and it has never been easier to raise money. Just set up a webpage, like this one, and then bandy it around as much as possible asking for people in better circumstances that those this is aimed to help to tap in some card details and give as much as they feel they want to or can.

There are thousands of noble causes in the UK, but one has caught my eye and provided me with an opportunity to cover 26 odd miles for their cause. Football is very close to my heart and Brighton & Hove Albion Football Club have a charitable arm called Albion In The Community. AITC do as much as they can on home shores but there are people even less fortunate than those in the UK and that’s what attracted me to start raising money for another AITC project in India.

AITC has teamed up with the Football Club of Canacona, the Organisation for Social Change, Awareness and Responsibility (OSCAR) and Generations For Peace to deliver a course of leadership training in the slums of Mumbai and the poverty stricken, rural areas of Goa.

The skills they will learn within the unique curriculum will enable them to provide safe, inclusive and important fun activities back into their community for some of the most marginalised and poorest children in India.

Once the young leaders complete their first successful 6 day programme they graduate to become certified Generations For Peace pioneers. They then pass their skills on to hundreds of other leaders in their country with the programme having an impact on more and more young children every year, while every trainer is expected to train at least 20 others and work with 100 to 200 children annually.

And there's one more thing. I've never run anything like this distance before. In fact, I've always been an appalling runner. And then I watched a documentary on Terry Fox and it put it into context. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Fox

 More information is here: http://www.oscarfoundation.com/AboutUs.html

 

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