I still can't quite believe this has happened, but I'm running the London Marathon next year thanks to having won on of six places through the Lucozade Sport Super Six competition on Runners' World.  Woohoo!!!!

One of the many fab things about this is that for once I don't have to worry about raising a huge amount of money to meet a charity target.  Best of all, though, I can pick a charity that actually means something to me, and that's Crisis.

I'm lucky enough to live somewhere nice now, but it hasn't always been this way.  In the mid1980s I'd finished university, couldn't get a job and the landlord wanted me out.  I had a dog so no private landlord would touch me with a bargepole, but that was pretty academic as I had no money to pay the rent anyway.  The Council didn't want to know because I didn't have children.

I was one of the lucky ones.  Thanks to a housing association I got a short life flat was due to be demolished to make way for the M11 link road.  It was horrible - no heating, no carpet, it had been recently flooded so was damp as hell and within six months developed rampant dry rot.  I had to mark where the joists were, because if I trod anywhere else I'd fall through.  Cold didn't begin to describe it, in winter the water in the loo used to freeze.  But it was a roof over my head.

Like I said, I was lucky.   It was horrible, but it was a permanent address, so it meant I could get a job and get a start in life.

Crisis helps other people in similar situations to do just that, and running through the finishers' tunnel for them will mean a lot to me.  Please give them your support if you can, and thank you for reading this.