Hiya,

Thanks for getting to this point on my page please read to the end to get an idea of what this charity means to me. Here's a bit of background to why I'm doing the London Marathon and why I am doing it for the Royal Free Hospital Scleroderma Unit.

On March 4th 2017, my incredible Dad, Chris, heartrendingly lost his battle to a horrific disease called Scleroderma. The Royal Free Hospital looked after him the whole way through and they were his best hope of survival. They are leading the way in finding treatments and trying to find a cure to this disease.

Scleroderma is a rare, chronic disease of the immune system, blood vessels and connective tissue. Only 2.5 million people WORLDWIDE have scleroderma, and in the UK there are 19,000 people diagnosed. It is an autoimmune condition, meaning the immune system becomes overactive and attacks healthy tissue in the body. 

One of the most noticeable symptoms can be the hardening of the skin as the body produces too much collagen. This excess of collagen can affect the skin, joints, tendons and internal organs. It causes scarring and stops the affected parts of the body from functioning normally.

My Dad specifically had Systemic sclerosis. In this type of scleroderma, the internal organs are affected as well as the skin. The heart, oesophagus, blood vessels, kidneys, lungs, blood pressure and digestive system can all be involved. In systemic sclerosis, it is more likely that the whole body will be affected, and in some cases there can be potentially serious complications involving the heart, lungs and kidneys. Common symptoms include fatigue, joint pain, and stiffness. 

My Dad went from the man that could literally do anything (including running a 3 hour 34-minute Marathon) into the man that couldn't even butter a crumpet or dress himself within 2 years. This disease is so rare and unheard of that it took 8 months to diagnose my Dad with it. If we knew more about this and he was diagnosed sooner, he may well still be here today! There are so few people with this disease and my Dad was so desperate for treatment, he was effectively the Guinea Pig – Professor Denton had NEVER seen a case as extreme and developing so fast as to what my Dad’s was.

The Royal Free Charity is so small that they only get 10, (yes 10), entries for the London Marathon. The big corporate charities like Cancer Research UK will get so many entries that their fund raising target is £2.5 million for this event. The Royal Free Charity will be delighted to raise £100,000 in a YEAR! Please, please dig as deep as you can, £1 means so much to this charity so please help me get to my target. Help me to help others like my dad.

Thank you so much for reading this. For those that want to know, my race target time is 3 hours 30 minutes. This was Dad’s target that I want to achieve for him.

All the best,

Ben