Hello lovely people!

This is something I've spoken about doing for a good while now, as some of you will know I previously ran the London Marathon in 2017 and honestly had one of the best days I think I've ever had. Then in 2019 was thinking about ways to fundraise for the MAD Trust, and decided to combine my two of my lives - WHAM and fitness. That year I ran the Royal Parks Half Marathon in drag; honestly the love and support was amazing.

This year I turned 30 and had been thinking about ways to celebrate / landmark it, and when I saw my good friend Kitty singing and cheering on all the runners from the sidelines of the 2023 marathon - I thought it was time to go for the full marathon looking as glamorous as I can.

I'm so pleased to be on the Terence Higgins Trust team for the marathon this year; they've been so supportive of this idea since day one. What I really appreciate about the charity, is that they provide education where it isn't given. When I was younger we weren't taught about being a member of the LGBTQIA+ community in schools - so they way we learnt was through trial and error. But the THT provides support and essentially the fundamentals of sex education that we went without. 

Terrence Higgins Trust are the UK's leading HIV and sexual health charity. They support people living with HIV and amplify their voices, and help the people using our services to achieve good sexual health.

They work to:

• end new transmissions of HIV in the UK by 2030;
• support people to live well with HIV;
• challenge the stigma associated with HIV and with poor sexual health;
• deliver high quality services.

They do this by supporting people living with HIV and ensure their voices are heard, providing testing services for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, and helping the people using our services to achieve good sexual health.

As well as provide services, they campaign on issues from relationships and sex education in schools to the proper funding of HIV services.

They also run community projects such as Positive Voices, which supports people living with HIV to tell their own stories, and work and skills programmes for people living with HIV. And on behalf of Public Health England, they lead It Starts With Me, the national HIV prevention programme.

Find out more at https://www.tht.org.uk/.

I'm super excited to be working with the amazing Studio Armell on the look for race day. The primary question I'm getting from a lot of people is; "will you be doing it in heels?". No. Unfortunately not. Health and safety first people. However I will be running in a fabulously stoned pair of trainers!

Any support you can give would be massively appreciated! From coming down to the mall on race day or just reposting my fundraising page. Huge love for you all!

Stay tuned for the updated training posts and of course all the fabulous pictures on the day!

Huge love,

Rye