Charity running for Mother Wilson

[slothian]

I've put this up on Facebook and Twitter this morning, but on the off chance we aren't Facebook friends and you don't follow my tweets (standard tweet = "well, I've nearly finished writing up Kidderminster's Museum of Carpet!"), I'll add it here.

Last year, my mother was diagnosed with lymphoma and underwent chaemotherapy for a large part of the year. She's beaten the worst of it and her hair's grown back and everything, but she isn't completely cured and will always have to have more minor chaemo treatment every 2-3 months from now on. The effect is that she runs out of energy quickly and can't really travel long distances without frequent rests.

Fast forward to the beginning of the year, my sister, who competes in amateur triathlons and jogs regularly, announced her intent to run a marathon to help raise funds for the charity who supported Mum over the course of last year. She and our cousin Lucy, whose brother is also a lymphoma survivor, chose a marathon in Inverness, which takes place at the end of September, as that would allow them enough time to train up enough to cover that kind of distance. They also noted that the organisers do smaller runs over the same weekend, and persuaded me to throw my hat into the ring.

If you've ever met me, you'll know that I'm not someone with a runner's physique. I've spent the majority of my 20s not exercising very much and drinking beer, which is obviously not a healthy lifestyle and I'll admit as much. So after investing in some running shoes, I started following an NHS programme called Couch to 5k. It is a podcast-based running programme over the course of 9 weeks which takes you from 6 x 1 minute bursts in the first week to running for 30 minutes straight in the final week. I've just finished the programme this morning, some four weeks before I get to put my training to use in Inverness.

Now I'm not someone who ever feels comfortable asking for money. I wouldn't ask it for my contributions to Earth-2.net - I very much regard podcasting as a hobby and I don't have a weekly commitment that would justify asking for replacement software/hardware. But I want to put this run out there because it means a lot to me. What my Mum went through last year was a prolonged, horrible experience and we're lucky that she came out the other side relatively alright.

So if anyone can throw some bucks our way, it'd be muchly appreciated. The link is:

http://www.justgiving.com/teamWrun

Thanks

Ian

[slothian]

By way of an update, the runs were completed today. Our cousin pulled out, but my sister finished her marathon in 5 hrs, 30 mins, whilst I knocked my 5k on the head in 30 mins. I could have been quicker, but the route was narrow and I had to dodge people/children walking.

So if you're someone who prefers to sponsor someone after they've done what they set out to do, the link in the original post remains live.

[Donomark]

Wish I'd seen this earlier man, I would've been happy to donate. Great that you've reached your goals tho!