Two years on since my last effort, a 10 kilometre race on my 23rd birthday, the situation in Iraq particularly amongst her orphans has worsened - which by my reckoning is an emphatic failure on the part of Iraq's government and the international community writ large. We have failed some of the most vulnerable children in the world, and that is nothing short of an embarrassment upon us.

The saddest part of this tragedy is that it is undocumented. A quick Google search draws up URLs from 2014 and earlier. The silent genocide of Iraqis is alive and well, and nobody has cared to know about it. Just yesterday (Friday 7th August 2015), 311 Iraqis were killed according to Iraq Body Count. The day before that, 23 were killed. The day before that, 39. The day before that, 63. The day before that, 57. There has been a death toll for every single day of 2015. Those numbers aren't just lifeless digits on your screen - they are people: fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, and grandparents of millions of grief-stricken children who are now left to fend for themselves in a war-torn country with no safety net.

As such, I come to you once again as a bearer of sad news, but also of hope, and accompanied by a sincere desire to deliver their plight into the limelight - not to darken your day, but to offer the opportunity for us all to come together and keep the shred of humanity left in us alive by offering what we can to those who need it. 

This time, I will be marking my 25th birthday by completing the 'Putney & Fulham Riverside Half Marathon' on Sunday 18th October in memory of my late uncle who was killed over 7 years ago in Baghdad and left behind orphans of his own, and in the hope of bringing the tiniest of comfort to children across Iraq with your help, who through no fault of their own have been robbed of their parent(s) and a chance at life. All funds raised will be donated to the Iraqi Orphan Foundation.

Please give what you can and harbour the world's children in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.