My name is Lloyd Martin and I’m on a mission to show the world that people with Down Syndrome can do anything they set their minds to! 🌟

After I watched my mum run the London Marathon, I really wanted to give it a go and when the opportunity for me to enter finally came up, I got a place!

I decided that if I was going to do it, I wanted to make history… I wanted to show the entire world that people like me can do anything!

So, at the 2024 London Marathon, at the age of 19, I set a Guinness World Record as the youngest person with an intellectual impairment to complete a marathon and through this JustGiving page, I also raised over £18,400 for two charities I really care about.

Since then, my life has been crazy!! I’ve been on TV, on billboards in London and I’ve even been shortlisted as a finalist in the 2024 GoCardless JustGiving Awards.

But that's not all I’m doing! I will be running in three more HUGE events across the world this year, and I’ll even be going for another Guinness World Record! 🌎🏅

As part of my mission, I have decided to up my fundraising target. I couldn’t even imagine beating my first target of £10,000 so it would be a dream to reach my new goal of £30,000!

My challenges:

London Marathon🏃‍♂️‍🏅

📆 21st April 2024

Challenge complete & Guinness World Record secured ✅

Charity Skydive🪂 🤸

📆 20th August 2024

At first, I was told I couldn’t skydive because of my Down Syndrome but just like the London Marathon I knew I could do it! I skydived to raise money for my gymnastics club, and you can read more about this on my club’s JustGiving page.

Great North Run🏃‍♂️‍🏅

📆 8th September 2024

I want to set another Guinness World Record by becoming the youngest person with an intellectual impairment to run a half marathon. I thought there is no better place to do this than at the world’s largest half marathon event!

Cardiff Half🏃‍♂️‍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

📆 6th October 2024

At first, I didn’t get a place in the Cardiff Half and I was so disappointed because I wanted to join my family in the race. But then I was given the best news and was given a place to run with my family in our hometown!

New York City Marathon🏃‍♂️🇺🇸

📆 3rd November 2024

I get to go all the way over to America to run in the New York City Marathon!! I’m so excited!!!

The charities

I am raising money for Stepping Stone DS and Special Olympics GB. Stepping Stone DS because they introduced me to and enabled me to enjoy lots of different activities since I was a baby, and Special Olympics GB because they have set up so many fun sporting groups where I can play and take part in competitive sports. I'd like to thank both of these charities for enabling me to have such an active and fun social life.

Thank you for reading my JustGiving page, if you would like to support me in my challenges, please donate❤️