Dear Friends and Family

My next amateur athletics endeavour brought me to this amazing team who strive to bring smiles to some special children and their families.

MACS* is a national charity that helps families whose children are born without eyes or with underdeveloped eyes. MACS is a small charity with a big impact. In the UK around 100 babies a year are born with these conditions and increasing numbers of families are seeking their support.

Together with my daughters Clio and Suri, we decided to support this charity because it helps children and every pound of your donation contributes towards material improvement in children's quality of life. MACS do not have big corporate and individual backers but they depend on the support of a number of enthusiastic and energetic fundraisers and volunteers who are very passionate in what they do.

Here are some examples of how your kind donation could be
used:

£1 for Emotional Support: They take over 780 calls per year from parents and children affected by a MACS condition. A donation of £1 will enable them to continue to take the next phone call to provide much needed support.

£10 for Creativity: £10 would buy a pack of scented marker pens. With each colour matched to a unique scent they allow a blind or partially sighted child to be as creative as they want to be.

£100 for Technology: £100 pays for a mobile phone with specialised speech software. Suddenly a blind teenager can feel like any other teenager.

£250 for Social Activities: Every year MACS organises a sailing trip for teenagers where they are part of the crew. No parents are allowed. It is a life changing trip. A donation of £250 enables a MACS teenager to have this once in a life time experience.

On behalf of all the children thank you for your generosity; your support will be bringing light to the lives of the children and mental strength to my efforts for completing a full marathon for the first time at the tender age of 45! Can’t wait to get to this starting  line…

Panos

*MACS stands for The Micro and Anophthalmic Children’s
Society. http://macs.org.uk/