Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

A lot of you reading this will have sponsored me before and know my inspiration behind this challenge, but for those of you that don't, I will explain.

I lost my amazing mum Sylvia Blake on 30th April 2013 to cancer. She was an incredible woman, and my sisters and I miss her every day. Towards the end, my mum made us promise that we would look after her at home, as she didn't want to go back to hospital. It was at this point that the support staff and nurses from the Iain Rennie Hospice At Home charity stepped in to help us. There was nothing that these wonderful people wouldn't do for us to help mum feel comfortable in her final weeks, and I know that mum was grateful for everything they did for her.

Losing my mum has been the very hardest thing I've had to deal with. I think of her countless times every single day, and the world is worse off without her smile and character in it. Seeing what the charity did for us and knowing what a difference it made, I decided to do my best to raise money for them as long as I am able. So far I've put on music festivals, run 62 miles along Hadrians Wall and conquered the mighty Sahara Desert. So I knew this year, my challenge had to be something HUGE!

So starting on 1st April, which would've been mums 70th birthday, I will be running a marathon once a week, every week for 56 weeks. My last will be on 30th April 2016, the 3 year anniversary of the day we said goodbye to our incredible mum. This challenge will comprise of a mixture of organised events and me just lacing up my running shoes and taking on local routes. And be warned, I will be looking for willing participants (or victims!) to help me along the way.

Thank you for reading, and thank you even more for donating your hard earned cash to a cause extremely close to my heart. I already know that my target of £10,000 is going to be smashed to pieces with your help!!

Much love

Martin xx