16 years ago, after more than five and a half of the least enjoyable hours of my life I said never again.  

But thanks to some well intentioned misadventure in a meeting with some of our clients, and to my good friend and colleague Amanda Metti, I find myself again entered for the London Marathon.  And this time I have lofty aspirations of cracking the five hour mark.

We are running for the Microloan Foundation, a genuinely very different type of charity, which does amazing work helping some of the poorest women in the world feed their families, send their children to school, and pay for life saving medicines.  

Why is the Microloan Foundation different?  It provides hope, not handouts by offering small loans (average £72) and ongoing business training and support, to women in rural Malawi and Zambia so they can set up their own self-sustainable businesses; enabling them to work themselves and their families out of poverty.

This is a great cause and one where the donations get spent where they really should do so please dig deep, Amanda and I sure as hell will be.