Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. This is the only time this decade that I have asked for sponsorship for anything. I will not come back year after year with a new challenge. Last year I ran 1,000 miles simply to prepare myself for this. So please give generously. 

In 2017, I am running 1698 miles, including the London Marathon and several other marathons, to raise money for SPCK's Prison Fiction programme. In case you're wondering why 1698 miles, it is because SPCK was founded in 1698, and it has been working with prisoners right from the beginning.

SPCK's Prison Fiction scheme is fantastic but it needs your support. The Prison Fiction Project gives easy-to-read books to prison reading groups and libraries. The books are specially written with prisoners in mind, and the way they are delivered in groups (including by organisations like Prison Fellowship, and prison chaplains and librarians) encourages prisoners to think about moral issues as well as literacy.

Here is what two prisoners have told us:

"It made me think how selfish I was towards other people and that I only thought of myself."
Prisoner, HMP Bure, 2015

"The book made me think differently, such as about the right and wrong doing of things. "
Prisoner, HMP Lewes, November 2016

A third of prisoners are functionally illiterate. That makes it even harder to get a job when they leave prison, encouraging them to reoffend.
Prisoners who read SPCK’s specially-written books not only improve their reading skills but also think about how they can make better choices and how they can maintain meaningful relationships with their friends and family, which will also help them to stay out of prison once released. Let’s get more prisoners reading better.

£10 can put an easy-to-read book in the hands of a prisoner
£50 can fund a mailing to 50 prisons to raise awareness of the programme
£250 can pay for an author visit to a prison
£500 will allow us to reprint 500 new copies of one of our titles 

Thank you!