Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Those of you who know me even a little bit will know that it's something of a miracle that I'm even attempting to run a half marathon - the Great North Run - in Newcastle in September!  I've only ever managed the Race for Life (5km round the Knavesmire in York) before and the last time I did that was three years ago, so just over 13 miles is going to be something of a challenge to say the least.  Especially as I haven't really started training yet, ahem.

The second miracle in this story is that I got accepted in to the Great North Run via the general ballot, which is apparently very rare if you've (a) never done it before and (b) are rubbish.

So - and here's the important part - I've decided to run for YoYo (the York Schools & Youth Trust) which is an amazing organisation, based in York (funnily enough), seeking to support and serve schools in the communication of the Christian faith.  More info is available on their website at http://www.yoyotrust.org.uk/  Please do give as generously as you can - they do really great work and are in need of more support at the moment, hence my desire to donate any sponsorship you give to them rather than a more universal or well known charity.

(For those of you who thought I was planning to, or would be running for the MS Society, actually that was the original plan, but their recent decision to close all four of their respite care homes across the UK, including Woodlands in York, made me change my mind, fully supported by Mum.  Please see http://www.savemsrespite.com/ if you're interested in finding out more and trying to help).

Anyway, on to the last leg (as it were) - donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.  I need all the encouragement I can get and YoYo will be really happy!

Thank you again for visiting and reading all this :)