This Autumn, I will be taking on the Royal Parks Half Marathon and raising funds for a vital cause. Thank you in advance for supporting my huge challenge and donating whatever you can, it will make a massive difference.

Meeting Needs is a charitable foundation set up by members of the meetings industry 21 years ago. With only one part-time member of staff, it is run by volunteers from the industry, so over 80% of funds raised go straight to causes it supports.

Funds raised are distributed by way of grants for specific projects to carefully vetted charities , or charitable projects, from within the UK or abroad. The charities supported have low overheads and turnover, themselves generally being run by volunteers, and cover a wide range of causes. For example

- Meeting Needs has supported concerts for sufferers of dementia and their carers performed by trained opera singers

- They have funded the renovation of classrooms in Tanzania so that children have a safe environment in which learn.

- Thanks to MN a group of young people who have had social and personal difficulties had the opportunity to travel to Scotland, climb Ben Nevis and receive support with personal development

- MN has help bought a tuk tuk, to be used as a taxi, for a children’s home in Tanzania to help them raise much needed funds themselves, has helped fund cleft palate surgery in Ethiopia

- They also provided furniture for a refuge for women who have been trafficked into the country and managed to escape.

The grants given with your donations can be transformational to those who receive them.