Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

**My Charity**

Alder Hey Children's Hospital is a place very close to my family's and my heart. As a patron, along with my husband who does amazing things for the hospital, I have always wanted to contribute personally. While attending a dinner, we heard the hospital speak about pioneering treatments and how they require funding to provide the resources that other children's hospitals have, something I honestly thought was automatically supported by our government. This really opened my eyes.

I have decided to take on my challenge for Alder Hey because, as a mum, I will always be passionate about children, their health, and their future. This amazing hospital is in our great city of Liverpool, right on our doorstep, and we should be proud and do all we can to protect and enhance it. If or when the time comes, we would want our kids and loved ones to have access to the best treatment possible. It is for the future—our kids depend on it, as will their kids one day.

**My Challenge**

I have always dreamed, since I was younger, of running a marathon one day. As the years went by, this seemed somewhat out of reach, but over the last year, I have focused on my fitness and only started running properly 6 months ago, doing 5K a couple of times a week. Having fallen back in love with running, I decided to explore if Alder Hey had any marathon running challenges to really push myself and started looking at upcoming marathons for the rest of the year. At that point, Berlin was 14 weeks away, but there were no places left within the charity, so I decided to organize and fundraise myself. Now, going from 5K to a marathon in 14 weeks would have been a challenge in itself for me, but then the rest of the 6 World Major Marathon dates also caught my eye, and I had this CRAZY idea to run them all within a year.

(It has since been announced that the Abbott World Majors have added Sydney to their list for August 31, 2025, so the 6-star challenge in one year has just become the 7-star challenge in a year. Let’s go get them!)

⭐ Berlin 29/09/24 - completed

⭐️ Chicago 13/10/24 - completed

⭐️ New York 03/11/24 - completed

⭐️ Tokyo 02/03/25

⭐️ Boston 21/04/25

⭐️ London 27/04/25

⭐️ Sydney 31/08/25

The reason I am only announcing it now is that the challenge was nearly over before it started. I had an amazing time during my training, and everything seemed to be going to plan—actually, too good to be true—but I got an injury the week before Berlin. If I thought my physical fitness was what would get me through, I had no idea how mentally challenging it was going to be. These last 5 weeks to complete this block of 3 marathons have been mentally and physically tough, but they are done now, and I have a little rest time to recover and heal before we go again. The challenge is still on. 🙏🏻

**The Goal**

Let's see how much we can raise! I didn't want to set a fixed limit as the final goal because I believe the sky is the limit. The challenge finishes with the last marathon in Sydney on 31/08/25. Please help me raise as much as possible to support Alder Hey in acquiring what they need and want, so they can provide the best treatment possible to our kids and the kids who need it most. You never know if or when you might need it one day.

Thank you all in advance for your donations and support. It means the world to me and really drives me on when I am completing each one.

Lots of love Nicola ❤️