The Race Day....On 6th October the Room to Read team successfully completed the Royal Parks half marathon (see photos) and in so doing raised enough money (0ver £8,000) to send 55 girls to secondary education next year.  Thank you!  This page will still except donations until 6th January 2014 so there is an opportunity to give another child a Christmas present by donating, if you still have not already done so.

My reasons for doing the run

I recently returned from trekking in Nepal.  As you would expect the views of the Himalayan mountains were spectacular and the daily hardships people endure with a smile is humbling.  Underneath those smiles is a torturous sadness of people suffering from illiteracy.  I got to know a porter named Thakur who I hired to carry my luggage around the Anapurna mountain range. But for a lack of formal education Thakur possesses the natural intelligence and enthusiasm to  hold down a much more intellectually challenging  job than that of imitating a mule. He would light heatedly bemoan his limited material wealth compared to the West, but he could not hide the anguish when he revealed that he never attended school.    We passed many other porters like him, carrying up to 120 killos all day (see above photo), without the ability to read the basic instructions on a medicine bottle.  In the gallery section below you can see other photo's of Thakur and myself.

The link between education and personal financial prosperity is clear, but the disadvantage goes further. Education helps individuals fulfil their natural potential, lead fuller, healthier lives and protects their freedom and liberty. 

Room to Read is an organisation doing fantastic work to eradicate illiteracy, currently standing at 793 million worldwide.  It has already helped nearly 8 million individuals, building new schools at a rate of one every 26 hours and a library every 4 hours.  Although it supports both genders one of its key focuses is on girls, because women who finish secondary school  have smaller, healthier families and are more likely to educate their own family -breaking the cycle of illiteracy in one generation.

I am having a raging argument with my ageing body to convince it to carry me around The Royal Parks half marathon course on 6th October as part of a team of ten with a goal to raising money to send a group of girls to secondary school; it costs £160 to send each girl for an entire year.  I would be grateful of your sponsorship.  Thank you for taking the time to read this and for your support. 

PS Thakur does not understand my jokes which I take as a further sign of his disadvantage; friends suggest its just a sign of his good taste.