All

Successfully completed the course in reasonably good order with no need to use the professional services of my excellent colleagues at the Whit who were also running. I did have a lot of help from Tom and Andy, my sons, who ran with me and got the competitive juices flowing....... It was an inspiring day seeing all the many runners with their favoured charities, most of them related to personal experiences in their lives, and also running around the landmarks of central London with a huge crowd in support. Thanks for supporting me. Your money will enable us to expand our SFYL service to help more ageing folk enjoy life to the full and hopefully establish a precedent that is replicated nationally over the next few years. Now I'm off to the pub after a few weeks of abstinence.....

Oh and I got through 23 Beatles songs although I struggled to get "A long and winding road" out of my mental songbook..

Tony

It's been 20+ years since my last Charity Run but a cause dear to my heart has me digging out my Dunlop Green Flashes and shaking the embrocation (and the collecting tin). I chair the WhitCat Charity at the Whittington NHS Integrated Health Trust in North London. We run a programme called "Singing for your Lungs" which provides weekly singing therapy for mainly elderly patients with respiratory issues and has spawned a choir that do local concerts. Anyone with ageing relatives will know the hospitals are full of elderly patients with respiratory issues which in turn lead to a loss of confidence in breathing deeply for fear of breathing difficulties and the panic attacks that accompany them, a reaction that severely limits quality of life. SFYL is aimed at giving patients the confidence and techniques to breath deeply and properly and as a consequence have the confidence to enjoy life as an active participant in exercise and activity. The programme at the Whit costs some £10k pa to run and is funded by the Charity but is fully subscribed with a waiting list and if we can raise a decent chunk of funding we can perpetuate and expand it to everyone who could benefit. It also has the potential for much wider national deployment given the obvious and visible benefits it brings. It's truly inspiring to see it in action.

Get to the point I hear you say! I'm running in the London 10k run on Sunday July 10th along with some 30+ colleagues from the Whit) in my case to raise money for SFYL. If you can spare a few quid to sponsor me that would be great and can be done either upfront via my Just Giving page, the link for which is below, or you could make it conditional on my completing the run. I know you greyhounds regularly run marathons in amazing PB's but I'm a greyhare whose age begins with a 6 with worse knees than a milkman's horse!
Best Regards
Tony