People who have known me for some time have been reconciled to the rather outlandish juxtaposition of the words (Joseph) Loftus and Marathon in the same sentence. Never known for my athletic interest, let alone prowess, my conversion to (half) Marathon running came as rather a shock to all and sundry.

In fact the blame must be squarely laid at the door of Mr. Aidan Duffy, who took a harmless conversation about my efforts in 2006/7 to be something other than a complete couch potato and used it to shame me into running a marathon for charity in October 2008. The next spring, he again twisted my metaphorical arm to run the Great Wall Marathon which we did to phenomenal success raising 23,000 euro for Bright Eyes (a Cataract Operation Appeal) and related Charities. By now I had the bug, and ran in the Beijing Marathon again in 2009. This time I had 10 sisters running as well and we raised a more modest 10,000 euro for their individual projects.  However, Mr. Duffy noticing a certain reticence about the 2010 Great Wall Marathon on my part, cajoled, goaded, and generally made certain that I would be involved, and my new found machismo would not allow me to back down. So I find myself again running up hill and down dale for charity in May.

Getting up at ungodly hours of the morning to train for this, I keep asking why I would do it? I came too late in life to this running lark to be really committed to it, but it does raise money for charity and that is the attraction. Working with rural charities here in China, one sees how strapped they are for cash and how absence of basic funds limit the provision of much needed services for the poor. This year we are particularly focused on the elderly and are using the still rather incredible site of me huffing my way across crumbling ramparts to raise awareness of the “without son without daughter” elderly. Their needs are particularly acute in a culture in which elderly care provision remains a family matter.

If you have a concern for elderly care, or are simply anxious to keep my flagging interest in this Marathon malarkey alive, support the 2010 Great Wall Marathon Appeal for Elderly Home Care Services.

Thank you

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