To family and friends.

Thank you for clicking the link I sent you via email.

Yesterday I finished 20.33km, on my final practice run for

the Beijing Marathon and am “ready for the off” on 9 am on Sunday next.

For those of you not familiar with the miracle that has transformed me from a couch potato into a lean mean running machine (well, sort of) this is not a joke, though perhaps it is an aspect of my midlife crisis. Not wishing to indulge in too much navel gazing, suffice to say, that this will be my 6^th half marathon and I have never been as fit as I feel today!

I am not out to bore you with details of my late-onset athleticism. From the beginning running in the Marathon has been about fundraising. BRICKS (the charity I have set up) is using my poor efforts to model Running as a Fund Raising Concept in China. Charity Running is  a well established practice in the west, it is unknown in China. Since 2009, BRICKS has persuaded, 9, 44, and this year 52 Nuns to run in the Beijing Marathon. Our efforts have raised over 30,000 euro for charity to date and we are heading for 20,000 euro this year. 100% of this sum is passed on to the Sisters’ projects. You can see details of the projects here

You can guess, by now that this is an invitation to donate. I have made it very easy by adding a Paypal button at the top right of the page and a series of clicks is all that is necessary to make sure you don’t miss this opportunity to support me through my midlife folly. Your donation will support The Guo De Zhuang Clinic which is raising funds to buy essential blood testing equipment for the local clinic. See here for more details

Thank you for your generousity and your willingness both to make my efforts to stay off the couch seem worthwhile, and to help BRICKS in its efforts to

Build a Great Wall of Charity in China BRICK by BRICK