Thanks for visiting my page. I'm raising money for the British Heart Foundation and I'd be so grateful for your support. My wonderful dad died of vascular dementia in 2004 and my lovely mum, who was also diagnosed with vascular dementia, died of a heart attack during lockdown in March 2021. In common with so many other people who experienced bereavement during the pandemic, we weren't able to see her before she died, and still feel sad about this. This run is for her.

Both mum and dad were enormously kind and generous towards others and I think they would be both surprised and proud that I'm running my first half marathon at the age of 65. Who knew it was possible!  A huge thank you to Tom and (especially) Emma for encouraging me to do this, and to my brother Graham for running too.

It has not been the straightforward training that I'd anticipated thanks to degenerative meniscus which left me totally unable to run in February and can still cause pain after just a few miles. But thanks to a great physio and running coach I've learnt to exercise and cross train, have strengthened muscles I didn't know I had, Nordic walked and aqua jogged, run on an anti-gravity treadmill and tested the patience of my lovely running friends who have been so encouraging and put up with my less than speedy walk-run-walk strategy. So many of you have got me to the start - I will do my very best to get to the finish. As Dean Karnazes says, Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up!

The BHF has helped halve the number of people dying from heart and circulatory disease in the UK but sadly every day hundreds of people lose their lives. It's only thanks to support from people like us that the BHF can create new treatments and discover new cures. £24 could pay for two hours of research by an early career scientist, but every pound helps so please give what you can to help me hit my target. Thank you!