It's official!

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I was officially awarded my London Marathon place today. While I had been told by Help the Hospices that they were going to give me a place it wasn't until today that I was officially recognised by the London Marathon itself so I'm very excited! No getting out of it now!

I also thought you should know that Michael Howard has been named as the new Chairman of Help the Hospices and dedicated his maiden speech in the House of Lords to praising the wonderful work that hospices do. His personal experience with cancer (his father died of breast cancer aged 49) makes him a fitting person to continue leading such an amazing charity.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/parliament/2010/11/michael-howard-makes-his-maiden-speech-in-the-house-of-lords.html

I have included the link above to his speech. But I want to draw your attention to one particular bit:

What is most remarkable about all this is the extent to which it has been achieved with a minimum of financial help from the Government. Health services are funded separately by the devolved Governments in each nation of the United Kingdom. In England, the Government contribute an average of 32 per cent of running costs for adult hospices, predominantly through primary care trusts, and about 15 per cent for children's hospices. The rest has to be found by charitable fundraising. Together hospices raise £1 million pounds a day to pay for the services that they provide. Almost 100,000 volunteers work in hospices throughout the United Kingdom, and the hospices could not do the work they do without them

This is the very reason why I am writing this blog, running the marathon and the reason I will ask all my generous blog-followers to sponsor me in April!

xxxx