Help me fight for lung health in the 2025 London Marathon!
One day I was sitting down in a uni class when I suddenly felt short of breath. I attributed this to exhaustion or poor fitness, but then it persisted for another fortnight. Imagine my shock finding out that one of my lungs had completely collapsed! Not long after, I needed to have my lung wall surgically glued back into place.
The human body is an enigma. What I experienced is called a spontaneous pneumothorax. It happens without a clear cause in about 7 of 100,000 people, and is most prevalent in tall, thin, healthy males.
After this experience I stopped taking for granted my health and ability to exercise, and became a regular runner. I feel so grateful that I have the freedom and ability to experience the highs, lows, pain and euphoria of running.
Next year I've been offered the incredible opportunity to run in the London Marathon on behalf of Asthma + Lung UK. This is the only UK charity focussed on researching, treating and preventing lung conditions, which is unfortunately a severely underfunded field of medicine. Every minute someone in the UK is diagnosed with a lung condition, and lung conditions are the third largest killer in the UK, but they only receive 2% of public health research funding.
Please help me raise £2,000 to help Asthma + Lung UK fight for everyone's right to breathe. Just £22 allows one of its respiratory nurses to answer a helpline call, offering potentially lifesaving advice. It's a cause close to my heart... and lungs!