My charity

I decided earlier today that I would post about my chosen charity tonight. As my first 'official' training run is tomorrow I thought it would be a good time to talk about them and launch the link through to my sponsorship page. It was obviously a good thought as when I got home from work tonight I found a welcome letter from the charity! It explained lots about the work they do and how they're going to support me during the build up to the marathon and on the day itself.

The charity that I've chosen to run for is The Dockland Settlements. It's been established in East London for over 100 years and provides a variety of services to meet the needs of local people. They are a small local charity which means that every penny I raise will make a difference - they can't afford to waste any money on administration or fancy equipment so they don't. They are part of the community and their priority is to make a real difference to people's lives.

They operate three community centres in East London, two of which are actually on the marathon route and one of which I have run past several times during my training. From these centres they provide a variety of services to the local community, from pre and after school playcare provision, to youth groups, through to a Vietnamese Refugee Support Group.

I chose this charity out of the many that I could have run for because it means I can make a difference in my local area. They only have 25 places in the marathon this year and they've invited us all to go and visit one of the centres and have a look at what the money we raise will go towards so I'm definitely going to take them up on that.

From what they've told me so far I understand that the money that I raise will:

*Go towards a project to help stop youth reoffending and reduce anti-social behaviour

* Put playworkers in school playgrounds

*Fund Christmas parties for older people

*Support a special needs education centre

*Fund junior football teams

*Support a full range of community activities from toddlers to pensioners

*Support a sports coach mentoring programme

I have pledged to raise £1250 for the charity and this is where I need your support. Please consider sponsoring me - there's a link to my Just Giving page here. Thank you in advance - your support really means a lot to me.