Hello!

I will be taking on the challenge of running the London Marathon 2023 to fundraise for SignHealth. Why we need your help? We are all raising money for SignHealth because we believe in their mission of improving the health and well-being of Deaf people. SignHealth has been supporting the Deaf community for over 35 years and provides these fantastic BSL (British Sign Language) services: Psychological Therapies, Domestic Abuse Service and Social Care.

I’ve been in part of #TeamSignHealth in various events; I’ve walked 15 miles once and I’ve ran 26.2 miles twice in the past three years in support of their work to improve #Deaf people’s health and wellbeing. I’ve been on a few other events including the recent Richmond Runfest 2021 & 2022 and the Great South Run 2021 which I loved having taken part in.

In July 2022 I became injured which I’ve had to withdrew from the LM 2022 which was last October. Fortunately I have a defer option for the LM 2023 instead and have re-entered the LM 2023 so I can focus on getting better and then get trained up for it. Please cheer me during my training journey.

A *BIG* thank you to all of my wonderful supporter who have sponsored me to date in aid of Signhealth via many different events as followed:

July 2020 25km walk (JustGiving page): £1190

+ Oct 2020 virtual London Marathon (JustGiving page): £1850

+ Oct 2020 virtual London Marathon (VirginMoneyGiving): £55

+ Oct 2021 virtual London Marathon (VirginMoneyGiving): £1088.45

= £4183.45 (GRAND TOTAL to date) - this has been entered as an offline amount in this fundraising page. 

I had set up this page here because 1) Virgin Money Giving website closed down in November 2021 and 2) I’m still raising money for Signhealth and I *STILL* have my 2020 rollover ballot place which is being deferred from the event on 3rd October 2022, due to being injured during the summer 2022 to the London Marathon on Sunday 23rd April 2023. My ballot place was supposed to be for the April 2020 event which was cancelled due to CoVID 19 lockdown. The two virtual London marathons I have done in Oct 2020 & 2021, those virtual races were part of my ongoing training for the real marathon. I’ve also entered a few other races as well to help with my motivation & training

Why sponsor me? The Deaf Health Charity SignHealth is an organisation that makes sure deaf and hard of hearing people have the same access to health services as their non-deaf peers. They need continued fundings to help with their campaign for BSL VRS [British Sign Language, Video Remote Service] with the health services. They had paid for the BSL Health Access themselves as a pilot project last year to allow deaf people to have telephone appointment with their GP. The health trusts were interested in it but they decided not to fund the vital service. Sadly with that, this important service had to be stopped after March. There is a text relay service available currently for the deaf and hard of hearing people but it’s quite difficult for most because they would have to think about what to type/write when they prefer to sign. I’m sure some of you don’t like to write or having to think about what to write & how to spell whilst it’s much effortless to speak. It’s the same for deaf people wanting to sign effortlessly with their GP.

Thank you so much for reading and many thanks for sponsoring me 😁👍🏻👍🏻 Helen xxx