Hi,

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page. On September 8th I'll be racing my first triathlon and I'm raising money for Vasculitis UK primarily to try and help people like my friend Ollie who suffer from a rare autoimmune disease known as Churg Strauss syndrome. I met Ollie when I first started Karting back in 2001, when I was just 16. Over the past 11 years, both Ollie and his father Julian have been tremendous friends to me and my family, both on and off the track. It took approximately 18 months for trained medical staff to diagnose Ollie's condition, which is both chronic and lifelong. At present there is no cure, and the disease can only be forced into remission; it will never go away. This lack of both awareness and a cure for Churg Strauss syndrome made me feel compelled to try and raise some money for both research towards a better understanding of Churg Strauss syndrome as well as raising money to help patients and their families who suffer from this terrible condition.

Whilst there is no obvious dedicated charity for Churg Strauss syndrome and its sufferers, Vasculitis UK raise money for a range of vascular autoimmune diseases, including Churg Strauss syndrome, which made them the obvious choice for my fundraising efforts. For those who don't know me so well, I am not the most athletically gifted of individuals, so a triathlon is a very big deal for me! I'm competing over the sprint distance - a 750m swim followed by a 20km bike ride and a 5km run to finish. I've already started training for those that are wondering!

I'm sure you'll agree that I'm raising money for a fantastic cause, so please dig deep and donate now. Every penny counts and is greatly appreciated. Even if I only raise a couple of hundred then that's still better than nothing. Thank you.