Thank you for visiting my fundraising page. Please dig deep and sponsor me online.

Donating through this site is simple, fast and totally secure. It is also the most efficient way to sponsor me.

Hello, my name’s Simon Pryce and I’m the Divisional Inspector for the RNLI in the south west. This means I look after 35 lifeboat stations and more importantly, the 825 volunteer lifeboat and shore crew who run them. It is to acknowledge their commitment to our charity and to the role of saving lives at sea that I have decided to tackle the London Marathon 2008.

The event has provided me with a chance to do some volunteer work for the RNLI – I’m giving between 5 and 8 hours a week to training for the marathon -but it also allows me to raise money for the training of our operational volunteers.  It costs £1,000 a year to train each volunteer – if I raise £3,500 that’s £100 towards these costs for each station in the south west, but how about this? If I raise £35,000 that’s one crew volunteer trained on each of our lifeboats.  

Of course I benefit too – at 42 (43 by the time of the marathon), I’m battling against middle-aged spread. I haven’t run competitively since my school days, but now I have the double incentive of a more appealing waistline and the opportunity to give something back to the charity I am employed by. I’m already running an average of 30 miles a week, but I’m also using the little known ‘Allotment Training Scheme’ which involves digging, weeding and cultivating my way to marathon running leg muscles.

So how can you help? Your financial support will assist me to raise as much as possible to train RNLI volunteers in the south west. If you were to donate just £35, you would instantly be providing 35 lifeboat stations (from Weston super Mare in North Somerset around the coast to Mudeford in Dorset and including the Isles of Scilly and the Channel Islands) with £1 towards the training of one of their crew. I know they would be extremely grateful and so would I.

Thank you for your support – without your generosity the RNLI would not be able to provide the life saving service it does around our coast – and remember, ours is a charity that relies on public donations to survive.

Now where’s that spade (for the allotment), tape measure (for my waist line) and incentive (to get around the course)?

 - Royal National Lifeboat Institution will receive your money faster and, if you are a UK taxpayer, an extra 28% in tax will be added to your gift at no cost to you.

So please sponsor me now!

Many thanks for your support.