Run For Your Wife!

This is my mate Tom Gill, who grew up in Kirby Muxloe. Beside him, his fiancée Carla, who this coming weekend, will become his wife. I pray they will have a great day with their friends and families and a long and happy marriage. I’ve blogged about them before.

Tom is the guy who founded East African Playgrounds- a brilliant charity which provides safe play equipment for children so they can run, jump and play happily [and the energy they expend on the roundabouts does useful stuff like pump water to their loos, as an added benefit!]

And this great guy is Mark Killey, who’ll be marrying my Steph in Jun. Mark and Steph are both keen on running- he proposed to her whilst they were out for a run [He did suggest they stopped and sat on a bench first and then he popped the question!]

Mark has been helping Steph these past few months, not just to prepare for the wedding, but also to prepare for running in the 2015 London Marathon. I was so impressed when they stayed with us after Christmas in Cornerstones – they got up each day and went for a run before breakfast, pounding the frosty Norfolk country lanes. I know that Steph has really valued his encouragement, particularly as she’s had one or two health issues which threatened to prevent her taking part on 26th April [less than 10 weeks now]

I'm running the marathon for East African Playgrounds because all kids deserve to be able to play!

Here’s part of Steph’s Just Giving page- she is asking for sponsors for EAP [she and Tom were classmates, 20 years ago and have remained friends ever since] I am incredibly proud of her for taking on this challenge in a year which already is busy with plans for another Significant Event in her life.

I’m aware that there are constantly requests for this charity and that crisis – but if you’re doing one of those Lent Courses that suggests giving to a good cause, this is certainly one to consider! [and if you want to remain anonymous, perhaps you could put ‘via Tracing Rainbows’ so she is aware of the connection] Her target is £250 – it would be wonderful if that was exceeded.

These two happy, loving young couples freely acknowledge how greatly blessed they are – but they would be even happier to think that  love is being shown to children in Africa without the advantages that they’ve grown up with here in the UK. If you are able to donate – thankyou. If you can’t do so, please just pray for Steph [and Mark, her ever-patient trainer] as she gets ready to run.

Less than 10 weeks to go! Do you know anyone who is running this year – and if so, what charity are they supporting?