<p>On&nbsp;April 15th,&nbsp;I will be running&nbsp;my first ever marathon&nbsp;in memory of&nbsp;my Dad, Glenn Whitehead. It has been 10 years since we lost&nbsp;Dad to a brain tumour, but&nbsp;we&nbsp;will&nbsp;never forget the amazing support and care he received from St Barnabas&nbsp;Hospice in those&nbsp;last few&nbsp;days of his life. Because of St Barnabas,&nbsp;my Dad was able to die peacefully with the respect, privacy and dignity that he deserved, and we will be forever grateful to the wonderful staff at St Barnabas House for their invaluable help at such a difficult time.</p> <p>When&nbsp;Dad was diagnosed his first words were, <span style="font-size: x-small;">&ldquo;</span>well at least it's me and not one of my girls.<span style="font-size: x-small;">&rdquo;</span> He was brave to the end and never once complained, even&nbsp;through two brain surgeries, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and&nbsp;that's what&nbsp;I'll be&nbsp;trying to remember when&nbsp;I hit the wall at 18 miles!</p> <p>St Barnabas House is a local, independent charitable hospice that offers palliative care for patients with advanced cancer and other advanced life-limiting diseases.&nbsp;Patients and families are never charged for the care they receive and the&nbsp;hospice&nbsp;relies solely on charitable donations in order to keep running.</p> <p>In case&nbsp;telling you about&nbsp;the charity&nbsp;hasn't covinced you to donate,&nbsp;I should probably point out that&nbsp;I'm not a natural runner. In fact, I've never even run a 10k before! But my bother-in-law&nbsp;Iain&nbsp;convinced me I could do it... and&nbsp;so here I am!&nbsp;Since signing up, I've put in long hours training on many a cold, dark, rainy&nbsp;winter evening (to date&nbsp;65 runs,&nbsp;344 miles,&nbsp;63 hours and nearly&nbsp;30,000 calories!) and&nbsp;I'm pretty confident that&nbsp;I've&nbsp;done enough&nbsp;to earn a few quid from your pay packet ;)</p> <p>Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving &ndash; they&rsquo;ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they&rsquo;ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it&rsquo;s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.</p> <p>So please dig deep and donate now! Thank you&nbsp;:)</p>