I am 66 and have suffered from mild arthritis in my knees for many years. I decided last January to diet and have lost a total of 3½ stone. I have been able to start jogging again, albeit for very short periods, for the first time in over 20 years.

My youngest son likes to take part in 10K charity events – especially at this time of year – and over a family dinner last September ‘challenged’ my wife and I to join him. We agreed and booked the Victoria Park “Santa Run” as our first attempt. There were over 2,000 runners on the day, all of whom were dressed as Santa; it was a bizarre sight and the local children could not believe their eyes!

I duly trained, building up stamina while realising that I would not be able to run for the whole 10K. I hurt my right knee by stepping into a deep hole on the golf course a few weeks ago and feared that I might not be able to take part in the event; but slowly started to jog again for short distances and felt good.

Then, last Thursday I pulled severely the calf muscle in my right (again) leg while jogging very gently indeed. I could barely walk for the rest of the day and could only hobble about on Friday. It still hurt a lot on Saturday but I reasoned that I was trying to raise money for a good cause…two of my friends have lost young children to sudden cardiac arrest…so, if necessary, I would limp slowly around the course.

In fact, I did the 10K in 1½ hours, averaging over 6.5kph – though I was thrilled just to complete it. My wife (1 hour 25 minutes), son (51 minutes 30 seconds) and I all raised money for different causes; I raised over £250 for CRY and between us we raised over £1,250 for our nominated charities – with my son being the biggest fundraiser by far. I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks for all their generosity to the Billericay Circle of the Catenian Association, who were my sponsors.

I hope that your charity goes from strength-to-strength; it is such a vital cause.

Peter Griggs