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The time is now…

Like one of my favourite Damien Rice songs, Older Chests, goes –

Like time, there’s always time
On my mind
So pass me by, I’ll be fine
Just give me time…

I went to a briefing meeting by Rachel Palmer who has been in Niger for two months. It was an incredibly powerful portrayal of what life is like in Niger for the children who are lucky enough to make it to one of our therapeutic feeding centres; essentially absolutely terrible. Her account of meeting Nassirou, who died aged two, and his family was really moving. The Save the Children homepage at the moment really illustrates how children are affected by malnutrition – their bodies start shutting down.

The time is now because we need to help these children before the damage done is too severe or irreversible. It is happening now – this summer! If a mother who was nine months pregnant walked for an hour to take her child to a Save the Children feeding centre, I am sure going to try and make sure Save the Children can help her when she gets there. We need money for this.

I’ve realised sending out your online fundraising page to your friends is about timing – I should have waited until the end of the month when people get paid! I sent an e-mail round to some friends last week asking them to donate and I got a few responses back saying they would but not until pay day… I’ve got to make it easy for people, and not something they have to remember to do next week.

Training wise, timing is also important. On Sunday night I did about 3.5K in 20mins and I did 4K in 23mins on Monday – pretty happy with that, but now I need to go for longer time on my feet. I really want to get to the hour mark run by the end of August. I do have two holidays in France to factor into the training…

Charlie, who also works for Save the Children and is also doing the Royal Parks Half Marathon this year, runs home from work once a week.  I think that is a great idea. I just mapped my route and worked out it would be about 7 miles for me to run home. Wouldn’t be able to do it right now but it is a good target for down the road…

Everyone who I know who has done it says that it is such a fantastic run – a great route and a great atmosphere. I’ve managed to rope in a few more of my friends to do the Royal Parks Half Marathon…any more takers? The time is now!

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