LeJog with a purpose - blatantly asking for your support!

[Whydothis]

At the end of September, I started LeJog 6, with the intention of setting myself a challenge and fundraising for my pet charity, which is called Ashanti Development. I have set myself the target of reaching John O'Groats in six months. I will achieve 200 miles tomorrow, by running 3 days a week and walking the other 4 days. I am just about on target, but with the winter coming and things getting colder and darker I think it will become even more of a challenge - but I am determined to do it!

Back in 2015-16 I raised funds to sponsor a small village in remote rural Ghana, and managed to provide my village with toilet facilities and safe drinking water. Before this, children were dying with diarrhoea, because without proper facilities everybody was practicing open defecation, leading to flies and disease.

In order to qualify for help, the whole village of 22 families had to commit to providing the labour needed to dig pit latrines and build huts over them. My sponsorship provided the materials and training in the building, as well as hygiene training. I then managed to raise the money for a borehole for water, to replace brown, dirty water from a stream.

I have seen the people in the village looking healthier and beginning to have the energy to produce crops for sale instead of purely subsistence farming, and they can now afford to improve their houses and send their children to school. The picture is from my first visit.

I have been so impressed with this charity - it is run on a shoestring from a dining table, no-one in the UK takes any expenses or salaries, and all the money goes to support the villages. A Ghanaian manager is employed, who oversees the building projects.

PLEASE look at the website ashantidevelopment.org. If you feel this is worthwhile, and would like to find a penny or three for each mile I run or walk, it would be very much appreciated. You can use the "Donate" button on the website. The money will go towards helping the next village Ashanti Development is able to support.