My Story

Until November last year, I was not a runner in any meaningful sense. Indeed, I could barely run 100 yards without feeling out of breath. But, for reasons still slightly obscure - whether turning 50 in January, or the first signs of a midlife crisis - I began to run. By Christmas, to my surprise as much as anyone’s, I had made it to 5 kilometres.

Since then, things have got out of hand. The miles have lengthened, the long runs have arrived, and what began as a modest experiment has somehow led to this: at the end of April, I shall be having a crack at the London Marathon.

I am doing so for The Primary Club, a small and wonderful charity which does remarkable work to support blind and partially sighted people through sport. It has cricket at its heart, but its reach goes much wider than that, helping to create opportunities, enjoyment and inclusion for those who might otherwise be shut out from so much that sport can offer. It is a charity that quietly does a great deal of good, and I am very proud to be running for it.

The Primary Club is not one of the big household-name charities with battalions of runners and a vast fundraising machine behind it. This year, it has just two runners in the London Marathon. That makes every donation valued and genuinely important.

If you are able to support me, I would be enormously grateful – both for The Primary Club, and for the slightly absurd sight of a late-converted lumbering non-runner trying to make it round London.