For the last few years, I have grown to love running as a way of balancing out life’s stresses, staying fit, and exploring new places. I have completed multiple half marathons, and now excited about taking the next step to full marathon territory in Osaka 2025. My day to day work as a paediatric doctor is both challenging and rewarding in equal measure, and I hope the marathon experience will be too.

I am privileged to be able to do something I enjoy, like running, while being aware of the health benefits it will bring to me personally. I also get to run through choice, rather than necessity (I definitely regret that choice some days!). I hope I can use my privilege and opportunity to improve the quality of life of others, by fundraising for Hope International. 

We often take clean drinking water for granted (and I’ll be needing A LOT of water in training and completing this marathon), but for far too many people in the world, they don’t have this luxury. Hope International’s work around the world makes access to clean drinking water a possibility for some, in a way that is sustainable and allows independence for the local communities. They have branches in a number of different countries around the world, with numerous projects in different global regions.

Hope International will use the funds raised from Osaka marathon runners for the following three activities:

1. Clean Water Provision; constructing wells in Cambodia or simple water supply systems in Ethiopia that use gravity to supply water without the use of electricity. These clean water supplies will be available near homes, freeing people from the burden of fetching water. This should also reduce incidence of disease caused by contaminated water. 

2. Assisting locals, predominantly women, freed from the duty of fetching water, to receive support so that they can become socially and economically independent

3. Running local activities in Japan to raise awareness of the situation that these communities face, and increase support for future fundraising efforts.

Thank you for visiting this page. If you have the means, please know that any donations will make a huge difference to the communities that Hope International works with, providing hope for their future.