I swore in 2010 that I was going to be a one-marathon girl, so what has happened to my brain?  I have no idea, but the training has started, my legs are trying to remember how to run competitively and the rest of me needs to catch up sharpish.  However I figure that if my legs can do it then I should be raising money for those that can't.  Hence I am running for Shooting Star Chase.

Shooting Star Chase is a leading children's hospice caring for babies, children and young people with life-limiting conditions, and their families.  I feel very lucky that my two girls are wonderful 16 and 18 year olds, seemingly with full, happy and healthy lives ahead of them.  But for some families this just isn't the case.

Their children's lives are measured in days, weeks, months or sometimes years, but whatever the timescale it is still a life limited.  Shooting Star Chase works with families from diagnosis to end of life and throughout bereavement with a range of specialist services from nursing through to emotional support.

For those of us with healthy families this is the unimaginable nightmare.  It is inconceivable to us all that our children might die before us so the specialist care and support that Shooting Star Chase give 365 days a year is the life line to managing to cope with the worst that life can throw at a family.

It costs £9.5 million a year to maintain the current level of care Shooting Star Chase provides and only 10% of that income comes from the Government.  So this is where you and I come in.  I promise to run, train hard, eat well, not drink too much and behave myself in a thoroughly decorous fashion over the next few months if you click the link, sponsor me, pour a large one - and then raise that glass to me!

Thank you, Laura x