In loving memory of my father, Peter 1941-2024

On 27th April 2025, I will be running the London Marathon for Age UK Islington. When I started this journey my life was quite different; I had no idea I was going to lose my father in the course of my training.

My father was born in 1941 and grew up in the Forest of Dean where among other things he played rugby for Gloucester and as part of his training cycled and ran. In the 1960s he moved to London and in the 70s trained as a social worker. He went on to run an alcoholics rehabilitation unit in Kennington and worked as a counsellor in a variety of paid and unpaid roles. For the latter part of his career, he together with his wife Maggie founded and ran a nursing home in Warwickshire.

Therefore, in his memory, it seems fitting that the funds from this fundraiser will contribute to my local Age UK's counselling service. This is a service identified as a gap in provision in the borough by AUKI and is entirely funded by the organisation.

To continue, it needs to receive gifts like these. The service has the capacity to offer counselling to 250+ vulnerable, older people per year who otherwise would not have access to this help.

I feel enormously privileged to be offered the opportunity to take part in the London marathon and to be able to run it, but that belies the 8/10 black toe nails, the kms run after dark on a treadmill during ramadan, having to take pain-killers for most runs for the second 3-months and just being exhausted constantly. All of that to say, it is hard and it has been an effort - and your contribution means the world to me.