Luton mum’s marathon challenge to help two charities

Amanda Clarke, 48, will be raising money for Addup, and Autism Bedfordshire when she takes on the 26.2 mile challenge. Addup supports children and families living with ADHD and Autism Bedfordshire provides information, advice, emotional and practical support to individuals with Autistic Spectrum Conditions, their parents/carers and families.

She said: “I chose these two charities as Addup is a small london based charity that helps families, my son has ADD he is 28 now and I know how hard it can be on the families, I chose Autism Beds as it’s local to me and I have worked with children that have autism for nearly 20 years.

“I have spent months training but even when the training got hard and emotional, it has been a dream of mine for many many years to do this before I am 50 (I will be 49 and 2 days on marathon day).

“I have never thought once on giving up. How could you give up and let the charities and all the people who have supported me down. I hope I keep this mentality during the actual marathon when my body is aching and my feet are telling me to stop!

“I have no target time, I just want to enjoy this once in my lifetime opportunity and hope to finish.

“With the help of friends and family we have had a few ideas to raise money. We hosted a quiz night which has raised just over £1200, several generous people donated prizes and we had a turnout of over 125 people.

“Thanks to J Clarke and M Clarke for sponsoring my running kit.”

Amanda is hoping to raise £2,000 to split between the two charities, to make a donation visit: https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AmandaClarke8.