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Here I go again, as if running the gruelling 26.2 mile course last year around London dressed as a giant potato wasn't enough for me, I've decided to do it all again but minus the costume of course!

Sore feet, muscle cramps, exhaustion and not forgetting the cracked nipples, over a 26.2 mile course for four hours, feels like torture. However it is nothing compared to what the sufferers I am running for have to face every day.

My sister was diagnosed with Juvenile Dermatomyositis in 1983, she was 6 years old and I was 4. It is a miserable disease, she was very weak, couldn't walk, play, swallow, talk or do any of the things we used to do together as kids. Her symptoms came on gradually and she spent many months in hospital undergoing tests, concoctions of medicines and physiotherapy regimens. She has got better but over the years has spent a lot of time in and out of hospital. There is no cure, but fortunately in most children the disease can eventually "burn itself out", this is where the muscle and skin inflammation resolves but many are left with mobility difficulties and constant fatigue as the muscles are damaged beyond repair.

Children are not the only ones affected; anyone of any age can be struck with this devastating autoimmune disease where the muscles (and the muscle capillaries) are attacked by your own immune system resulting in chronic inflammation and muscle damage. Inclusion Body Myositis is quite different from the other forms of myositis and is more common in older people in fact it is now thought to the most common muscle disease in people over the age of 50 years with features akin to being a degenerative disease.

The Myositis Support Group was set up by my parents as a parent contact group Juvenile Myositis but rapidly accepted adults also suffering for the disease. Despite being a small charity it has with the help of its supporters raised money to fund many research projects across the UK in the hope to find a better diagnosis, prognosis, management, treatment and ultimately a cure. The work of the Charity was recognised in 2008 when my Farther, founder of the charity Les Oakley was awarded the MBE for Services to People with Myositis.

The Myositis Support Group has many future projects waiting in the wing for financial support and I hope my efforts in running this year’s London Marathon will go a small way in helping them achieve their goals and help those who suffer from the disease.  At the end of the London Marathon I will have quite a few things in common with the sufferers I will briefly experience muscle inflammation (and a raised Creatine Kinase level), but thankfully mine will recover!

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Thank you

Dave