I'd like to thank...you all!

 Pic caption: Gratitude, I am full of it at the moment. (That really isn't meant as sarcastically as it reads)

I just want to say thank you to everybody who has responded so magnificently to my online appeal to raise sponsorship for the London Marathon run which I'd doing in aid of the British Heart Foundation.
In just ten days I have raised about £500 which has boosted the grand total to just over £1,200, which is much nearer the target of £3,000 than I was last month.
I'm very lucky to know so many wonderful and generous people and without sounding like an over-emotional luvvy on Oscar night, I'm really touched.
It's a cliche but it really does make it all worth it, because without the work of the BHF and the fantastic NHS nurses, doctors and surgeons that are the envy of the rest of the world, there's a good chance I wouldn't have got this far in life at all. I was born with a hole in my heart to begin with, and that was sewn up fairly quickly while I was a baby with the only reminder being a fading scar on my chest.
That was replaced with the fat new scar that was left by the heart valve replacement surgery I had in 2007. That serves as a reminder every day to me of how important it is to get my ass out there and keep training to run this marathon and raise the vital funds that will hopefully help the BHF and in turn the NHS to research heart disease, which is still the UK's biggest killer.
It may be a bit cold or rainy for me, but if had been born in another country, without the privilege of free health care, would I even be here today? That's enough to keep me going, and hopefully may nudge anybody who is considering sponsoring me to click on the link and make that donation today.
But thanks again to all the support so far, it really means a lot.

Blimey! Think I've turned into a bit of a big girls' blouse, better start talking split times, interval training and chaff wounds again while chomping on flax seed and bananas:-)