I am running the London Landmarks Half Marathon on 7 April to raise money to build a new clubhouse for Streatham and Marlborough Cricket Club.
The club is a special place that has been my second home for the last 10 years, giving me a community in London I did not have before I moved to the city. There are in excess of 500 members, and last year alone the club ran 482 matches and 43,000 hours of organised cricket across the club. That includes one of the largest junior sections in the country, providing cricket for boys and girls of all ages. It’s an amazing sight to turn up on a Saturday morning and see two fields full of kids playing and enjoying cricket - but that is in jeopardy.
Our current clubhouse is falling apart, and is already beyond repair. Unless we can build a new one, the club will die.
That’s why I am currently in training to run 13.1 miles around central London.
Anyone who knows me and my chequered injury history over the last 18 months (and longer!) will know this is going to be a massive challenge, and the training is already proving hard work.
But the support and knowledge that people are donating money to the cause will keep me going in the wintry training runs and the big day itself. Below is what the new pavilion will look like, as long as we raise the requisite money, and I think you'll agree it is more than worth it. If you want to know more about the whole project, click here for an exhaustive guide.
Please donate anything you can to the cause, it would mean the world to me - and to hundreds if not thousands of children who will pass through this club over the decades which building this pavilion will safeguard.
(CGI images courtesy of Tandem Studios)