With an elderly father struggling to cope following two major strokes, John Harding is running for a cause very close to his heart in this year's London Marathon.
Together with his running mate Lesley Wood, of Selsdon, John is hoping to raise £3,000 for the Stroke Association.
The 41 year old judo teacher, from Headcorn Road in Thornton Heath, wants the cash to help raise awareness of the shortfall in aftercare for recovering victims and to increase support given to all those affected.
He said: "When my father first had the stroke he was treated at Mayday Hospital, which I must say was absolutely excellent in terms of care.
"But it was afterwards when he came home that it became clear that the system has a long way to go to make sure enough aftercare is provided with most of it consisting of putting stroke sufferers in front of the TV.
"Having lost his speech and most of his balance my father is now almost totally dependent on my mother and I."
Having run a marathon before in aid of the charity before and due to his active job, John is already quite fit.
But John and Lesley, who run South Norwood Judo Club together, have put in several months of training for the event, on Sunday, April 14, and are hoping to add more sponsors to their list.
"I am really looking forward to running on the day," added John.
"Hopefully I will make enough money to make a difference to The Stroke Association and help their research into this devastating condition."
To sponsor John, contact Angela Purvey at The Stroke Association on 020 75660311, or email nationalevents@stroke.org.uk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article