London Marathon 2017: why I’m running for the RSPCA.
…No, I didn’t get in. The rejection mag landed in my letterbox as predicted.
But what I did get was a very exciting phone call from the super lovely team at the RSPCA asking if perhaps I would consider the London Marathon for them instead of Brighton. I pretended to consider it for all of about 30 seconds before declaring rather excitedly that yes, yes I would, and please don’t change your minds thank you very much please.
Fortunately, they didn’t change their minds and I will indeed be running the London Marathon 2017 as part of the amazing #TeamAnimal.
I know a lot of runners who don’t like the idea of taking up a charity place, or fundraising on a ballot place, and I totally get it; the idea of raising money can be really daunting. But how often in my life do I do something that’s worthy of being sponsored for? The stat that’s banded around a lot is that only 1% of the population will ever run a marathon – so it’s something to be celebrated, respected and definitely worth people digging deep for. I mean, they’ll probably just be relieved that it’s not them who has to run a stupidly long way.
So why the RSPCA? Well, it’s a charity that’s been close to my heart since I was as young as 3 – when my first cat came into my life in the shape of an RSPCA rescue tabby called Amber. He lived with us until the grand old age of 18 and I have since had two more pet cats – both adopted from the charity. No pet owner needs to be told the value of having an animal in your life, and I’m a very strong advocate of adopting animals in need rather than buying them. I was also an active member of the Junior RSPCA squad as a kid, and was about as animal obsessed as you can get.
Mister Dinosaur. What do you mean you can tell my toddler named him?
With the charity being so high on my radar and it being such a well recognised name, I was really surprised to find out that they are often overlooked when it comes to people fundraising for them at running events, which made me more determined than ever to highlight their work and raise as much money as I can.
And by ‘all animals’ they really do mean all animals – it isn’t just pets that they aim to help, it’s farm animals, wild animals, and those used in testing and research. That’s an awful lot of animals and an awful lot of money needed to keep it going. The amount of money I’m aiming to raise seems like a lot, but compared to how much money the charity needs to keep on doing the amazing work it does, it’s a drop in the ocean.
With that in mind I would urge anyone who is considering running a marathon – or any running event – to consider looking at the RSPCA charity places (they currently have places available for London Marathon, Brighton Marathon and the Great North Run) or using your ballot place (you lucky devils you) to raise funds as part of Team Animal.
It says Team Animal, obvs.
Have a glance at this page – it’ll tell you all you need to know.
I’ll be keeping you updated on my training, but for now here are some more cute pictures of my cats.
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Thats amazing.hope you enjoy it.any marathon is a big achievement for anyone.