At Bookmark, we want every child to read. Even prior to school closures, eight children in an average class would leave primary school unable to read well and, during lockdown, 380,000 children were at home without a single book.

Please sponsor me to raise funds for our charity to deliver more reading programmes to children in 2021!

Over 12 days from 12-24 December, I'll run to 12 locations that inspire reading. So far, I've run to....

Day 1 - Brixton to explore inclusive stories

Day 2 - Chelsea for a running tour of blue plaques (Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, AA Milne and George Eliot)

Day 3 - Battersea for a rainy night run past schools, libraries and bookshops

Day 4 - St James's to run the steps of Lord Byron, Noel Coward, William S Burroughs, William Blake

Day 5 - Clapham Common to explore the stories of Ian McEwan, Angela Carter, William Wilberforce, Samuel Pepys, Graham Greene, John Walter

Day 6 - Exploring Kew Gardens through the eyes of Virginia Woolf (and a snail)

Day 7 - Most fitting of all for children's literacy, the school run!

Day 8 - A run to Knightsbridge, to follow the path of literary and real-life spies and Australia's only winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 

Day 9 - A walk to the Thames, muse of TS Eliot and many others

Day 10 - Wandsworth Common, surprisingly once near the home of Voltaire

Day 11 - To Richmond Park, to explore one of the Royal Parks that have inspired writers for many years 

Day 12 - To my own bookshelf, to remind myself of the books that have made 2020 bearable and why I love reading 

Here's the difference your donation could make:

£10 - Gift a child with a 1:1 Bookmark reading session

£25 - Give a Bookmark magazine to 50 children to inspire reading at home

£50 - Give a Bookmark magazine to 100 children to inspire reading at home

£120 - Gift a child with a six week 1:1 Bookmark reading programme

£360 - Support a child with a year of 1:1 Bookmark reading programmes to build their skills and confidence

£1,000- Support eight children with a 1:1 Bookmark reading programme - the number of children in an average class who leave primary school being unable to read well