On April 15th, I will be running my first ever marathon in memory of my Dad, Glenn Whitehead. It has been 10 years since we lost Dad to a brain tumour, but we will never forget the amazing support and care he received from St Barnabas Hospice in those last few days of his life. Because of St Barnabas, 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.

When Dad was diagnosed his first words were, “well at least it's me and not one of my girls.” He was brave to the end and never once complained, even through two brain surgeries, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and that's what I'll be trying to remember when I hit the wall at 18 miles!

St Barnabas House is a local, independent charitable hospice that offers palliative care for patients with advanced cancer and other advanced life-limiting diseases. Patients and families are never charged for the care they receive and the hospice relies solely on charitable donations in order to keep running.

In case telling you about the charity hasn't covinced you to donate, I should probably point out that I'm not a natural runner. In fact, I've never even run a 10k before! But my bother-in-law Iain convinced me I could do it... and so here I am! Since signing up, I've put in long hours training on many a cold, dark, rainy winter evening (to date 65 runs, 344 miles, 63 hours and nearly 30,000 calories!) and I'm pretty confident that I've done enough to earn a few quid from your pay packet ;)

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’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’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now! Thank you :)