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This has been a year like no other. When I first started training for the London marathon in January, most of us had never heard of Covid 19. Today, we rarely have even half an hour when it does not come up in one way or another. 

This has posed unique challenges for the British Red Cross but the kindness and commitment of our volunteers and staff has been immense. We have responded domestically with food deliveries, support to hospital discharge, hardship grants, a national telephone support line and community education programmes. We have deliberately steered our support to those people facing the greatest health inequalities and reached tens of thousands of people. Internationally, we have supported our sister red cross and red crescent organisations in some of the most challenged places in the world, like Somalia, Syria, Lebanon and Bangladesh. 

At the same time, we have had to close our shops and first aid training social enterprises and then progressively re-open them as lock down is lifted. 

We are now preparing for what comes next, be it more Covid 19 restrictions, flooding, flu or other hazards. Internationally, we have already mobilised to support the efforts of the Lbanaon Red Cross as it responds to the terrible explosion in Beirut. 

I remain as inspired by the red cross as much as I was when I first came into contact with it almost 30 years ago in southern Africa seeing red cross volunteers respond to the HIV crisis.  

2020 is the 150th anniversary of the British Red Cross and sadly we are needed more than ever.We need to inspire a new generation of supporters to meet the defining humanitarian challenges of our time including climate change, health and social care crises, conflict and population movement.

So I hope you might agree to sponsor my third London marathon.

Thankyou!