Edward Bond 2010 London Marathon

As many of you will know, I am running in the London Marathon on the 25th April. It has taken me a while to get to this point and I kick myself for not making my first attempt years ago when lots of friends and indeed family seem to have undertaken this extraordinary challenge seemingly without effort. Now I feel like one of the 'older runners' and it is clearly not going to be a very elegant sight to see me after 26 miles.

I am running for The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust who very generously gave me a place on their team. It is a privilege to be representing them as their efforts have and will continue to help people from all walks of life suffering from depression. Many of you will be familiar with their work and various friends of ours knew Charlie personally. His family and friends are building a lasting legacy to Charlie, who was to all those lucky enough to know him, one of life's truly special people. Sadly he is no longer with us and we all wish that an organisation like the Trust that holds his name was around to give him the help he evidently so badly needed.

The Trust is raising awareness of depression as an illness and reducing the stigma attached to seeking help. It aims to promote mental well being so that fewer people become depressed and individual suffering is reduced. As we all know the illness can affect those you would least expect it to and so often courageous men and women suffer without support. I think the team do a wonderful job and I have enclosed some material for you to read about their work. Do look them up too if you would like to find out more or run for them next year maybe! cwmt.org

My training started several months ago now and the finish line remains a few weeks off. The cold winter has tested my motivation from time to time to say the least but Ginny and the children have been very supportive and I have to sincerely thank them for that. Lucozade Sport is often ferried out to the 10 mile mark and hot cups of tea await my return. Much of the training has been done in the very early mornings, most enjoyable when amongst remote hills but invariably in sleepy London. I have become very familiar with rubbish trucks, the Queen's horse carriage and her drivers in Bird Cage Walk who exercise before dawn most mornings and even a family of Barn Owls in an old willow stump. These will be my lasting memories and hopefully the more painful ones - and there are several - will one day disappear. Only a few more weeks of running crazy distances - sometimes more than 50 miles a week and often followed by an ice cold bath which they say repairs damaged legs.

I know over the years you have probably been beset with many requests for good causes following or subsequent to various endeavours. This will be my first and last Marathon and I hope you will not mind me politely asking for your support. Preparing for the distance has been a genuine challenge however, running for a good cause makes more sense of it all so anything you can spare would be hugely appreciated by the Trust and will make a real difference to my sense of achievement.

There is absolutely no need to commit now. I will be sending you all an update after the 25th April when I hope I will be more deserving of your support. I will do my best for you on the day! Thank you all so much and I look forward to letting you know how I get on.

If you wish to donate on line you can go to the 'donate' icon above. I think it is a relatively straight forward process. Using everyclick enables the charity to gift aid your donation. Alternatively if you feel it is easier to send a cheque, please make it payable to 'The Charlie Waller Memorial Trust' and post it to us at 9 Iffley Road, London W6 0PB, UK.

Thank you all - Ed