Hello and thank you for visiting our fundraising page.

We are running the Brighton Marathon on Sunday 12th April 2015. Yes all 26.2 miles of it! It has been an ambition of both of ours for some time and we have finally decided to go for it. Call it a 'turning 30' crisis if you will!

Why we are doing this: Jo’s story

We are raising money for the Stroke Association. This charity is very close to Jo's heart. In 2008, at the age of 23, Jo suffered a Haemorrhagic Stroke caused by a benign brain tumour. This temporarily caused her to lose the feeling on the right side of her body and she was very ill. After the successful removal of the tumour, she began the process of learning to walk all over again. Whilst she made a truly inspiring recovery, she is unfortunately left with some residual weakness on her right side as well as a permanent headache. However, anyone that knows Jo will know that she is too stubborn and determined to let this get in the way of her life; including learning to run again!

So, in January 2014 Jo began learning to run again. Slowly but surely she began racking up the miles even despite her ‘dodgy leg’. And that was it; she was off and now has crazily decided to tackle a full marathon!

Gemma was inspired by Jo’s decision to run the marathon and quickly volunteered to run beside her.

Neither has run a marathon before but they are both excited for the challenge! They are following the same training plan and so far both are coping very well with the demanding schedule. They keep in touch most days to swap training stories and offer support. At 7 weeks in to the training plan the weekly mileage has already reached 25 miles! This is set to increase every week until it peaks at 40 miles per week – I think both agree that this is already quite a challenge!

We are running the Watford Half Marathon on Sunday 1st February 2015 as a little warm up/training run – so please wish us luck and support us to reach the finish line by donating whatever you can.

We would appreciate it if you could dig deep and help us raise money for other Stroke sufferers like Jo. No matter how much or little you donate, it will all add up and help massively. Other survivors don't manage to recover as well as Jo has and charities such as the Stroke Association are key to helping provide support to those who need it most.

Please visit www.stroke.org.uk for more info about the amazing work this charity does.

Thank you,

Jo and Gemma xx

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