Dodgy knee, spare tyre, and the drive to make a difference

I am Tony Round, and I am head of fundraising at The Fostering Network. I am fortunate enough to be able to work for a charity that dedicates itself to helping make life better for foster carers and fostered children and young people in care, and I want to help even more foster carers and children, so I am running the Royal Parks Half Marathon.

I can't sit at a desk asking people to do something that I won't do myself, and having met and worked with children and young people in foster care I know that these young people, when given the right environment in which to thrive, lack nothing in energy or imagination. I believe that what most of them need more than anything else is a loving stable fostering family home to grow up in and the help, support and understanding that foster carers and The Fostering Network uniquely provide. 

So I know why I'm running, I'm just not sure that my old legs will carry me all that way - even if they can still get me up and down a rugby pitch on a Saturday afternoon!

I am running in the Royal Parks Half Marathon in October to help some of the 63,000 fostered young people in the UK today to benefit from the projects, programmes and activities that The Fostering Network provides, to raise their ambition, inspire them to achieve and to enable them to fulfil their potential and lead happy and successful lives.

It was after a mad moment and having spent countless seconds considering my options that I decided that there is no reason why a middle aged, overweight, casual jogger with a dodgy knee shouldn't run a half marathon, especially when it is for a cause so very close to my heart.

If you can, please support me, my dodgy knee, and my unrealistic expectation of an under two hour finish time by visiting my fundraising page. You'll also be changing the lives of children and young people who live with foster carers right across the UK. A win on all fronts I reckon.