Do you love milk and cheese? Do you love cows? I’m running a marathon (and a half) to support a charity that produces dairy products from cows treated with compassion and love.

On normal dairy farms, calves are separated from their mothers at birth. This traumatises the mothers, who will spend weeks screaming as they search for their babies.

The average lifespan of a boy calf is a few hours, after which he is fed to dogs or tossed into a dustbin.

Or he gets to stay alive for four months. After that he's slaughtered and sold as veal.

Dairy cows are killed the moment they are no longer considered productive. They are often slaughtered at just a quarter of their natural lifespan.

They are also pumped with antibiotics and hormones so they produce artificial levels of milk. This treatment leads to excruciating pain and deformities.

The drugs often enter the human food chain too, contributing to antibiotic resistance, weakened immune systems and higher cancer risk

It’s unfair, isn’t it?

But I'm not ready to go vegan. I love paneer and halloumi. I’m all about paneer and halloumi.

So let me introduce Ahimsa, a charity that runs a compassionate dairy in Leicestershire.

Ahimsa’s dairy is 100% slaughter free - cows are retired to sanctuaries when they are too old to milk.

Calves stay with their mother for months. Bulls are kept for life and given enjoyable tasks on the farm.

This seems like the way all milk should be produced. Gandhi described the cow as “a poem of compassion”. So let’s match the cow and get behind Ahimsa Milk. They are wonderful people and they are swimming against a strong tide, so they need our help.

First, I’ll run the Windsor Half Marathon in September. Then, in October I’ll run a full marathon in Dublin.

Please sponsor me. Love milk, love cows, support Ahimsa!