If I finish the Leeds half will you buy ANDY a pint?

The Leeds half marathon is a humble challenge compared to many of my friends' fundraising endeavours; walking through the sahara, running actual marathons across the globe and the like. But I think you'd probably buy me a pint or a coffee at the finish line if you were there, so why not give that money to Action Network for the Disabled (ANDY) - the charity I spent last year working for in Kenya - instead?

Take a look at this slide show if you are considering sponsoring me. It goes a bit quickly, so use the pause button. Or just sponsor me here 




If the slideshow is as frsutrating to use as it was to create (alternatives to picassa will be happily considered), here are the words::

I’m running the Leeds half marathon - mostly to help my old colleagues to carry on transforming the lives of Kenyans with disabilites, and a little bit to sort out my belly.
Life is tough enough for Kenyans, and its even tougher if you're disabled. Most of Kenya's 6m disabled people live in poverty and lack the basic tools anoyone needs to escape a life of dependency. Stigma and abuse is rife, few get an education, employers and banks reflect society's negative attitudes towards disability, and just getting around on uneven, mud paths  and slums can be a long and undignified daily challenge.
But as big as the challenge is, the price of your daily coffee or (hopefully not daily) beer can make a real difference to people with no access to school, healthcare or income.
£3 (or more if you like) could provide ANDY with the cash to help one of the millions of Kenyans with disabilities living in slums like Kibera.
It could pay for qualified but often overlooked disabled candidates to attend one of the life-changing internships which ANDY arranges or for ANDY to offer entrepreneurs a loan to start their own business.
It can help put on an advocacy training session to help disabled people in rural communities to understand the country's new constitution and hwo to make the msot of their rights, or it could help to maintain new equipment for ANDY's internet cafe, which churns all its profits back into its programmes.

ANDY is helping thousands of disabled Kenyans to shape their own lives. It is a unique organisation led by disabled Kenyans like Ouko, who climbed Mt Kilimanjaro in 2010 just to prove that losing the use of both legs as a child shouldn’t stop anyone.

So to sponsor me please make a donation directly to ANDY’s justgiving page, putting some reference to me or the leeds half marathon in the message: http://www.justgiving.com/actionnetworkforthedisabled

Thanks!

GW