8 months ago at the young age of 56 I ran my first ever half marathon with several work colleagues and helped to raise funds for Birmingham Children’s Hospital. It was a great day and kept me fit as well!

I decided not to stop there and found a new challenge. Sadly, this was by way of my wife’s friends’ misfortune, as two families had each lost a son due to cardiac failure while participating in sport.

I approached both families to ask if they would be happy for me to run in aid of CRY and in memory of their children – Sam Wright and David Reid – and both families gave me their blessing.

3 months of training later and I lined up for the Lichfield Half Marathon.

With £740 of donations to inspire me, I completed the course in a respectable time of 1 hour 58 minutes – slightly worse for wear!!!

The run was rather daunting as most runners were from official clubs and very few ‘charity runners’ had entered.

However, this possibly singled me out (in my CRY vest) and I was spurred on with shouts of “Come on CRY runner!” from the spectators along the route.

At the end I felt proud to have helped CRY in some small way and can only say that you provide a wonderful service to families in need of help.

Andy Newman
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AndyNewman