Running for Plan is a family affair

Lucy Yeomans and her husband Ivan Wadeson took part in a half and full marathon in Amsterdam this year. They were inspired by their daughter to use it as an opportunity to help others, and the £600 they raised through sponsorship will go towards an immunisation campaign in Mali. Lucy tells their story.

Lucy and Ivan's daughters proudly display their parents' medals

"When we set ourselves the challenge of running 39.3 miles between us in one day (a marathon for him; a half-marathon for me) we did not originally intend to shout about it from the rooftops, but to slope off quietly to Amsterdam for a four-day holiday with a bit of running in the middle.

However, when our eldest daughter returned from school one day after a particularly thought-provoking RE lesson, we quickly changed our minds.

Our daughter had been asked to identify the four items she would rescue from her home, if, like millions of people worldwide every year, she had to leave her home and family at very short notice.

When she was born, 11 years ago, we began to sponsor a child through Plan in Kenya.

We wanted our daughter to grow up to understand how privileged she is, and to learn that many of the freedoms we take for granted - shelter, food, clean fresh water, education, human rights - are denied to millions of other people who are otherwise just like us.

As she has grown up, we have shared with her the pictures and information about our sponsored child.

She has seen Mwanapili grow alongside her. It has been an education in itself to learn that Mwanapili can only just read and write; that she has to walk for miles every day to collect water; that she lives in only the most basic of accommodation.

We discussed all these things that evening with our daughter and, with that day's lesson still fresh in her mind, the message finally hit home: she was born lucky.

As children so often do, our daughter got to the heart of the matter. 'It's not fair. What can we do?' she asked. Although we were already doing something, through our support of Plan's work in Kenya, it was clear that we could do more.

With still three weeks to go before our races in Amsterdam, it wasn't too late to start asking for sponsorship. In fact, the fundraising came at just the right point.

As you reach the end of an arduous training plan, the long weekend runs are not just lonely, they're boring and monotonous and you can start to lose motivation. But as soon as we saw our friends opening up their wallets, and leaving their - sometimes hilarious, sometimes downright rude - comments on our Just Giving page, our enthusiasm for our challenge returned.

Ivan completed his Marathon in a personal best of 3 hours 24 minutes. He runs regularly and this probably won't be his last Marathon. But I am not a natural runner, nor a particularly enthusiastic one.

I have been touched by the generosity of our friends and work colleagues who have given so willingly to a great cause.

As I plodded my way round Amsterdam's streets I wasn't just thinking of the medal at the end; during the difficult stages there is no doubt that the faith shown in me by our sponsors - who paid up before I even got on the aeroplane - gave me the motivation to finish in a satisfying 2 hours and 10 minutes. I'm certain that it would have been longer if I'd been 'on my own'.

The truth is that we would have run these races anyway. All it needed, however, was a little motivation and a little inspiration and we got to run our races and raise over £600 for a very worthy cause. If we can do it, anyone can!"