On the 25th of September Laura Ratcliffe raised an AMAZING £2,060 for MCAI. Here's her account of what happened:

I decided in February this year that I really wanted a new challenge to keep me motivated to get fit, and so signed up for the Berlin Marathon, on 25 September 2011. At the time it seemed a long way off, but when I printed off a training plan and began to realise the amount of work that I needed to put in, that certainly made me realise what I’d signed myself up for!

I began training properly 16 weeks before the race, and soon realised that training is very hard work and time consuming once you have to start seeing a 10 mile run as ‘not really that far’. However, signing up to run for a charity like MCAI helped keep me going, and meant that giving up wasn’t an option as I pounded the pavements four times a week. Once I’d managed 21 miles at the end of August (on a hilly run round Oldham – getting lost a lot on the way!), I knew I’d be able to make it round on the day.

Fundraising was actually easier than I thought – I set up a justgiving page, making sure I put photos on it and my reasons for supporting MCAI, and then emailed it round to all my work colleagues, friends and family. My mum was also really pleased that I had chosen MCAI as the charity to run for, as she has worked with them through her work with Soroptimist International (http://www.soroptimistinternational.org/). I think the combination of a marathon being a pretty big achievement, and the fact that people could see the benefits of the work MCAI do, meant that I raised more than double my initial target of £800. Overall I raised £1,671.20 which I know made a big difference to a small charity like MCAI and would like to thank everyone who donated money to me. Justgiving was also good, as it meant that they could claim gift aid on that money.

The race itself out in Berlin was actually really fun – I had a great support crew, including my mum, dad, aunt and my fiancé and looking out for them in the crowds helped pass the time on the long route round the city itself. All the training really paid off, as it meant I could enjoy the race, and the atmosphere was great with lots of bands lining the route providing some good entertainment on the way. I finished in 4 hours 21 minutes, which was under my target time of 4 hours 30 minutes, and raised a lot of money as well. All in all, I’d recommend doing a marathon for charity to anyone…though beware – the training is hard, but perhaps that’s what makes it all the more worthwhile in the end!

If you fancy taking on a challenge for MCAI why not visit our what you can do section and see how you can help save the lives of critically ill pregnant women, babies and children in some of the worlds poorest places.