Chicago is the first of 3 city marathons I will be attempting in 3 weeks, and the charity focus here is St Vincent's Hospice. The Chicago course has a time limit of 6 hours 30 minutes, so Andy is going to have to get his skates on!

St Vincent's Hospice has cared for many good friends over the years, including my father-in-law Tom Reid back in 1998, and more recently my friends Steve Clayton, Anne Moore, Elaine Hunt, Allan McNeill and Jimmy Anderson, among others.

One sunny afternoon shortly before he died, I visited Jimmy and his wife Eileen in the Hospice. Jimmy was in a nice big private room which had a lovely view out to the open countryside. I remember he said to me "I don't know where they get the money to run this place".

Well, I know now. It costs £5,500 per day to run the hospice and community services, over 50% of which comes from voluntary donations. Please sponsor my attempts to complete these marathons and help raise the vital cash for the good people in St Vincent's Hospice to continue to provide their wonderful works.

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. So it's the most efficient way to donate - saving time and cutting costs for the charity.