I'm taking on the iconic London Landmark's Half Marathon on 7th April to support children's reading with Bookmark.

Running was a lockdown thing for me - driven by escapism and something to do more so than fitness, and I’ve carried on with it since the 2020 madness. I like the sound of this run because I am such a tourist!

Another pastime of mine is reading - I’ve always loved reading, I really enjoy the escapism, relaxation and learning I get from it. My daughters have inherited this love too. A few years ago I spent some time at a local primary school reading 1 to 1 with Year 2 children and it was really rewarding to help them develop their literacy skills and interest in the activity. In view of this, I find some of the stats below pretty upsetting.

*Children who don't read well by age 7 are six times more likely to drop out of school than their peers who read well.

*More than 1 in 4 kids in England are unable to read well when they leave primary school.

*Bookmark helps children to become confident, skilled and joyful readers through a holistic approach combining 1:1 support and high-quality books and literacy resources.

Here are a few ways you could help me make every mile count:

£5 - could gift a school a book for their library

£25 - could gift 54 children their very own Bookmark literacy magazine to support reading at home

£50 - could gift a collection of new and diverse books to a school to transform their library

£100 - could gift seven headsets to a school to enable children to complete our online reading programme

£273 - could support a school with an annual subscription to Bookmark's Story Corner magazine

£1,125 - could gift a library pack to a school with 200 new books and resources

If you think our efforts are worth the cost of a coffee/glass of wine/pint of Guinness then please send a fiver my way…and watch this space for how I’ll try to make it worth your while.

Thanks for reading 😃

Rachael x