Today, I wanted to celebrate our incredible fundraisers.

We were delighted when the TCS London Marathon launched its new charity bond scheme, allowing charities to secure places in the marathon for the next four years. As a small charity, we’ve always found it incredibly difficult to access places in this iconic event, so we jumped at the opportunity to secure four places.

With our places confirmed, we just needed to find our runners. We shared the opportunity with our supporters and to a wider audience and were thrilled by the response. We had a number of inspiring individuals step forward, ready to don their trainers and take on the challenge of running 26.2 miles in support of our charity. This was not something we took lightly and we are hugely appreciative of the dedication, training, and fundraising effort involved.

Everything was in place, but did not run without a challenge. Just two months before race day, three of our four runners had to withdraw. Naturally, this left us scrambling to fill the places. Amazingly, we quickly found three new runners willing to take on this incredible challenge at such short notice, and we are so grateful for their commitment.

Now, with less than two weeks to go, we have four fantastic runners, Matthew, Helen, Nick and Lexi, who are enjoying a well-earned rest before the big day. We couldn’t be prouder of them.

The funds they are raising will support our Community Grants scheme, which provides unrestricted funding to good causes. Many of these are small organisations that struggle to access vital funding, and these grants can be a real lifeline to them.

One of the most rewarding parts of my role is speaking with grant recipients and hearing first-hand the impact this funding has on their work and communities. It’s a good reminder of why we do what we do at TheGivingMachine, and why continuing to fundraise is so important.

So, a huge thank you to our London Marathon runners for helping us make a difference.

We wish them the very best of luck and hope they enjoy every moment of their run.