This Sunday, 26th April, should have been the 26.2 mile London Marathon. Instead, the day has become the national 2.6 challenge to raise money for the UK's charities.

As a sector, charities are predicted to see a £4billion drop in funding in just 3 months. Like many other small charities, First Days relies heavily on community, corporate and challenge events to raise funds to keep us going, and with the government restrictions these simply cannot take place.

As a team our challenges are ranging from delivering 26 support parcels to cycling 26km, shooting 26 consecutive basketball goals or catching the same number of frisbees, a 26 challenge work out and climbing to equivalent of Skarfell Pike on the home staircase! Anything goes, and if it includes the number 2 and 6 even better.

We know that money is tight for a lot of people right now, and we know that our services are going to be more in demand than ever in the coming months, but every little counts. If every one of our social media followers gave just £2.60 it would be enough to support the whole charity for a month.

General fundraising has been hit very hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thousands of fundraising events have been cancelled and many charities, particularly smaller ones, are struggling to maintain services because of this huge reduction in income.This impacts all sectors of society from children to the elderly as well as the vital work in areas such as palliative care, serious diseases, mental health, housing support, food supplies and countless others that charities support.