Last year a very dear friend of mine died as a result of diabetes.  We were housemates during my third year at University, and I would never have thought that 14 years later I would be running a half marathon in his memory.

Around 2 million people in the UK have diabetes, and up to 750,000 more have it without knowing.

In September I’m going to be running the Great North Run half marathon in Darren’s memory, to raise much needed funds for Diabetes UK.

Diabetes UK is the leading charity for people with diabetes. At any given time, hundreds of Diabetes UK-funded researchers are engaged in projects committed to improving the care and treatment of diabetes, preventing it from developing in those at risk and, ultimately, finding a cure.

Those of you who have met me will know that this is going to be a bit of a challenge, thankfully I have 30 weeks until the race to get myself up to scratch. I won’t be spamming my blog or facebook with my training updates, but I will be reminding you of what I’m doing, in the hope that you will dig deep and sponsor me (click the logo below to visit my fundraising page).

Alternatively, you can send a text message to 70070, including my JustTextGiving code (NUTN99) and the amount you want to give (£1, £2, £3, £4, £5 or £10). So to donate £5, send a message containing ‘NUTN99 £5′.  There are no extra charges for you, me or the charity I’m supporting.

Today is the first day of my training schedule, so here’s hoping it’s a relatively smooth journey from now until September!

D.