*An appeal from the Geriatric Running Club of Stonehaven*

We need your help to raise funds to buy T-shirts with the logo “We’re too old for this shi*t”

Oops sorry, Freudian slip klaxon .

What we meant to say was, we need your help to hit our fundraising target of £4,000 for Guide Dogs For The Blind. That money can make a massive difference to this brilliant cause, helping to train puppies, equip them and their owners and generally help people with sight loss live a full life.

And what are we doing to earn your hard-earned cash? Just run the London Marathon, that’s all. Because we think Guide Dogs For The Blind is worth our blood, sweat and tears. And your generosity.

So, the (consults notes) top athletic team of Scott, Amanda and Jodie will join hunners and thoosans of other folk this October scampering around 26.2 miles of the Big Smoke.

Behind us are hours of planning to prepare for this gruelling event. No actual running or training, like. We’re still working on getting our running socks on without grunting or breaking into a sweat.

Why the London Marathon? Because Scott finally got a ballot place after seven attempts and Amanda and Jodie decided they’d better go too - just to make sure he actually does run it and not just hop on a double decker to the finish line with his bus pass.

Joking apart – assuming you found any of the above amusing – running the London Marathon is a big bucket list tick for all three of us.

The fact we are going to be able to do it while raising money for such a superb cause as Guide Dogs For the Blind is the icing on the cake.

But it is an icing we need to come up with, which is why we are asking for your help.

Any donation you give, large or small, will get us that bit closer to our target and energise us to get over that finish line.

So, over to you lovely folk and thanks in advance from us and from Guide Dogs For The Blind, the puppies they will train and the people these clever dogs will care for.