I am running the Virgin Money London Marathon 2014 for The Children’s Society because the work they do changes the lives of children and young people every day as they fight childhood poverty and adolescent neglect.

As the Director of Children and Families at the charity, I feel a strong connection to our work and especially the work focussed on childhood poverty. Despite living in a country which is the sixth richest on the planet, we are seeing levels of child poverty that are unprecedented in my lifetime. This is an intolerable position and one which the Government could do more to alleviate, if it saw it as a greater priority. It was Nelson Mandela who said; “You can judge a society’s soul by the way it treats it children”. On this measure, the great man would see Britain today as pretty ‘soulless!’

That is why I am not only taking on the challenge of running 26.2 miles but doing so in ‘Huaraches Barefoot Running Sandals’, inspired by those worn by the Tarahumara Indians of North West Mexico. If even for just 5 hours, I will be able to visually protest against the plight of young people whose suffering goes unseen. To finish off the race I will cast off the 'barefoot' sandals and run truly barefoot for my last mile!

This is my 1st marathon and after taking on the 3 peaks in both winter and summer this is going to be my hardest challenge yet and keeping in line with that, I have set myself my highest fundraising target yet - £10,000.

Please sponsor whatever you can to help me reach my goal. The old adage of ‘every little helps’ has never been more apt. Thank you so much.

Damian