Ok, I'm going to try to tug on your heartstrings so you'll donate what you can to support this fantastic charity (pun hugely intended)...

I'm proud to say that I was born a 'blue baby'. This means at the age of 6 weeks I developed a hole in my heart and was rushed into hospital, where I underwent open heart surgery.

Eleven year's later I was back. I'd been treading water in a school competition, suddenly my legs stopped working and I sank to the bottom. Something wasn't right. Doctor's found out that my aorta was slowly twisting, without intervention I'd be wheelchair bound by my twenties. Again, an amazing medical team stepped in to perform surgery, saved my life and nurtured me back to full fitness.

It goes without saying that I'm eternally grateful for the skill, care and compassion of the Children's Heart Surgery team, so I thought this might be a good way to say thank you. Instead of being in a wheelchair on my 27th birthday, I'm going to run the Manchester Marathon; I'm aiming to be pretty fast too. Hopefully this will send a strong message to youngsters who are approaching or have had heart surgery, as well as making a few of my old nurses and doctors smile.

Rain, sleet or snow, I'll do the training; it would be amazing if you could donate a few quid to support this truly exceptional charity.

Thank you,

Tom