“A huge thank you for giving me the opportunity to fulfil one of my ambitions – what an experience! I think my body has just about fully recovered now from the blisters, stiff and aching muscles and overall exhaustion (it took me 3 days to before I could manage stairs!)

It still seems a bit surreal and sometimes, I can’t believe I actually did it! After all the months of preparation, training hard and injury worries, my main concern was to get round the course in one piece and not to let anyone down. I knew I could run 18 miles without stopping and just hoped I could manage the other 8 miles without too many problems.

There was no need to worry though, as soon as I got to the park at Greenwich, I immediately felt relaxed and focused to start my challenge and it was exciting to see just how many thousands of people were in exactly the same situation. Everybody was so friendly and chatty as we all waited to get near to the start and I could feel the positive energy spreading through the crowd. What with the surprising but welcome sunshine and the continuous lines of families, well wishers (and priests!) the first five miles went relatively quickly. The atmosphere just got bigger and better, – I was high fiving children lining the roads, waving to the crowds and smiling at the bands and choice of music being blared out along the way. Every time I felt I was getting tired, the music would lift me or groups of strangers calling out my name would suddenly spur me on.

I had a bit of an emotional few miles when I hit 20 miles, my feet hurt and my blisters had burst, so it was difficult to run but I was so overwhelmed by the support of the crowds who encouraged me to keep going, I was determined to carry on.

My best memories of the day had to be spotting my niece in the crowds, holding her handmade banner as I ran around the magnificent Cutty Sark, crossing Tower Bridge and finding the hidden energy coming up to Buckingham Palace, so I could break into a sprint to the finish line on the Mall!!

So thank you again for letting me be a part of this amazing experience. It not only gave me a chance to prove to myself that I could complete a physical challenge like this but also give something back to a charity who helped support my sister through two ectopic pregnancies and who continues to be a true inspiration to me.”

Our congratulations to Catherine and to our other Gold Bond team members for their amazing achievement. They are all winners in our eyes!

Catherine Mooney: 05:47:13 Carmen Norman: 04:52:14 Fola Olafare: 04:27:07 Tracy Rowson: 06:15:25Alexis Scorer: 04:26:01

If you would like to read about what motivated them or to sponsor them just click on those links. Your sponsorship will be put to very good use, delivering the EPT services.

If reading Caterines’s account has inspired you to do something, click on the events button to the right of the screen and see if there’s something you fancy doing and raising funds for us. You can also read more about what others have done to support us in our fundraisers diary.

Ballot opens (and probably closes) on Monday:  Read on for your best chance of securing a place in 2013. What an amazing achievement for our 5 Virgin London Marathon runners in 2012. Our grateful thanks goes to Catherine Mooney: 05:47:13 Carmen Norman: 04:52:14 Fola Olafare: 04:27:07 Tracy Rowson: 06:15:25 and Alexis Scorer: 04:26:01 and if you are looking for inspiration, those numbers next to their names is the time they ran it in. Huge congratulations to them all. If you would like to read about what motivated them or to sponsor them just click on those links. Your sponsorship will be put to very good use, delivering the EPT services. Hopefully, we’ll be adding their accounts to the Fundraisers’ Diary over the coming weeks. Reading about others achievements is often a real inspiration.

we want all our potential supporters to be ahead of the game. Mad though it might seem, if you or a friend are thinking about running the London Marathon in 2013 you have to think fast. You have three chances of a place. The first is by entering the public ballot, the second is through your own running club if you belong to one and the last is a Gold Bond charity place. So, first things first. If you think you would like to run in 2013 please make sure you enter the online Public Ballot. That way, we stand the chance of increasing our places in the race; and if you are then lucky enough to get a Ballot place, it will take the fundraising pressure off you.

The Ballot opens this year on MONDAY APRIL 30^th at www.virginlondonmarathon.com  Last year; it reached its upper entry limit within 24 hours, so to stand the best chance you should log on in the early hours of April 30. If not immediately successful, please keep trying throughout that day and even into May 1st, the longer you leave it into May 1^st though, the less chance of being awarded a ballot place.

After May the 1^st our Gold Bond places don’t become available until June. However, you can express your interest in one, by registering with our team managers CRunCH who will contact you toward the end of summer 2012 to offer places.

If a marathon is not for you, then there are still lots of ways you can help and support us, some of the them won’t actually cost you a penny. Use Everyclick as your search engine and we get a penny a click, eBay your extra stuff and nominate the EPT to benefit from a percentage of your sale, look us up on their select a charity list, shop through our partners Spend and Raise or Give As You Live or even, collect stamps for us. You can read more about that here. We also have a moderate amount of merchandise which you can check out here. Of course if you do fancy something sporty check out our events diary by visiting it here or clicking the events button on our website to the right of the screen.

The start was a bit slow. I was in pen 9 right at the back, but once I crossed that start line, it went so quickly. Going around the streets, it was amazing the amount of people cheering us on and willing us to do it and it made me want to go faster and believe I could do it even when at times, it was hard.

When I reached The Cutty Sark, there were so many people cheering, I could hardly hear myself think. When I reached the the Tower of London the view was amazing and a lady pulled me along telling me not to walk across, so I didn’t and it felt great.

Hitting the 20 mile mark was hard and the miles seemed to drag, until mile 24 then it flew by.

As I reached Buckingham Palace, all I wanted to do was run as fast as I could to the finish line, so for the Last 200 metres, that is exactly what I did. Going across the finish line was the best feeling ever, even though it was hard to walk but having the medal placed around my neck made it all worthwhile.”

Our congratulations to Tracy and to our other Gold Bond team members for their amazing achievement. They are all winners in our eyes!

Catherine Mooney: 05:47:13 Carmen Norman: 04:52:14 Fola Olafare: 04:27:07 Tracy Rowson: 06:15:25 Alexis Scorer: 04:26:01

If you would like to read about what motivated them or to sponsor them just click on those links. Your sponsorship will be put to very good use, delivering the EPT services.

If reading Tracy’s account has inspired you to do something, click on the events button to the right of the screen and see if there’s something you fancy doing and raising funds for us. You can also read more about what others have done to support us in our fundraisers diary.

Back in December just before Christmas I read an article about a half marathon event taking place in our home town of Colchester on March 11th. It was the nudge I needed and I promptly paid my entrance fee and bought a new pair of trainers.

My 19 year old son Jay (he’s on the left in the picture) who is a personal trainer said that he’d do the run with me for moral support. My wife Nicky had suffered 2 ectopic pregnancies in 2010 resulting in both of her fallopian tubes being removed. In times of crisis you look for support to try to make sense of what’s happened and through some web research we found the the EPT site. They were and continue to be real source of both education and support to us. I knew that I wanted to do something for them to raise some funds. Let’s be frank about it, unless either you or someone you know has been through this the EPT are not one of the “headline” charities that are on everyone’s radar. So, I’d encourage everybody who has been touched by ectopic pregnancy to think about what they can do however small to raise much needed funds. My training has gone well and today as I write this I’ve just come back from my longest run so far a 10 miler. Bit sore to say the least but I now know if I can do 10, I can definitely do 13.5.

Running does not come easy to me as although I always keep in shape with the gym etc running is a challenge as a couple of years ago I sustained permanent nerve damage to my left leg as a result of poor treatment following an ankle break. However, compared to what Nicky went through my

13.5 miles will be a walk in the park, even if it doesn’t feel that way on the day. The fundraising has been great and we’re over £500 already with a few weeks still to go. I’ll let you all know how I get on and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Jill and the team for their considerable support to our charity event- it’s good to know that what we’re doing really will make a difference.

If you’d like to support Robbie by sponsoring him, visit his fundraising page

In this Olympic new year why not challenge yourself and raise valuable funds for the EPT.

We are now a charity partner to the 100km London2Brighton challenge which looks an amazing event taking place on 12-13th May. It really does look incredible and is being coined as a journey most will walk, some jog and a few hardened types may run it all or a mixture of all three.

What a feeling of excitement and anticipation you’ll get as you set off from London with your fellow challengers, they’ll be replenishment check points every 12km, hot meals will be provided finishing with a well earned brunch in Brighton you’ll certainly deserve this when you get your last burst of energy and your bleary eyes see the stunning coastline come into view.

Join individually or as a team whatever you choose make this your ultimate fundraising endurance challenge of 2012, the Olympic year.

Also don’t forget to Check out our Events Diary for further inspiration.

The EPT is appealing to you because 11,000 women are admitted to hospital every year as an emergency. Many thousands more are cared for in emergency clinics.

If you could support us with a regular gift of a few pounds each month, so that we can continue to support those who already use our services and those who will find us over the coming months of the New Year, we can assure our service in 2012.

If our ‘friends’ felt they could donate £5 a month – this would generate sufficient income to provide our helpline for a year.

If our Facebook friends felt they could support us with £5 a month, The EPT would have more than 2/3 of the income we need to provide all of our services for a year.

If we have helped you, then please consider helping us to ensure our services are there for the thousands of families who will need us in 2012 and the hundreds of thousands who’ve  found us and used us over the last 13 years and continue to do so.

Wising you gentle New Year

So how does an evening of entertainment, champagne, canapés and tastings to kick the Christmas season off to a brilliant start sound? What’s even better; is 100% of ticket sales will go to charity – and you can decide which charity benefits (providing they are registered with theBigGive.org.uk  and of course we hope if you go along, you’ll choose The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust.

For every £50 ticket you purchase, you will receive a £50 charity voucher at the party, to give to any charity registered with theBigGive.org.uk.

So, grab your girlfriend(s) and the boys for that matter, and book some tickets. Tickets will go on sale on the Fortnum and Mason Charity Christmas Party website, at Midday on Monday 19th September.

If you wish to purchase a ticket off-line, please email fortnums@thebiggive.org.uk

Tickets are likely to sell out very quickly so make sure you are first in the queue on the 19th September, to stand a chance of getting a ticket to this wonderfully festive evening out! You can get a reminder first thing on the 19^th September by registering here, http://www.fortnums-christmas.com  so go on, have a fabulous evening out and get in the party mood, on the countdown to Christmas 2011. And if you can’t make it yourself but think you know someone who can, persuade to nominate The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust to benefit from their shopping spree.

The weather was, on the whole, kind and if anything a little warm.  This year we had a slightly smaller team but they were no less committed and all enjoyed the race. Several popped along to see Julie Milan, one of our volunteers, who was on hand to offer pieces of flap jack, fruit and a well earned drink and grab the odd snapshot to remember the occasion by.

Take a look at some pictures of the day and then read on …………………………..

Our heartfelt thanks go to Melody Erb, Jill Ansell, Gaby Ansell, Christie Amobi, Amirah Capillaire, Joanna Pitman, Kate Pye, Nicole Devo, Becky Guile, Erin Murphy, Sheonaidh Johnston, Ruth Kirkpatrick  who chose The EPT, as their charity which means we benefited from £5 of their entrance fee and have also been seeking sponsorship and fundraising for us and 7 more, who chose to remain anonymous but kindly chose The EPT, as their charity which means we benefited from £5 of their entrance fee.

If you were there and running on behalf of the EPT, then send us your pictures and your story we’d love to publish you here on our fundraisers diary.

If you missed the adidas Women’s Challenge this year but think you might like to take part next, keep an eye on our events diary from the beginning of next year for our stop press news, when the application and entrance process opens.

In the meantime, we would like to thank our team again and wish them all as much or little time as they need to recover, after running in this amazing women only race and raising funds for The EPT and awareness of the condition.

Is there a venue near you this year? The runs are in 13 venue’s up and down the UK

Liverpool (Sefton Park) Sat 6th Aug 2011
Sheffield (Rother Valley Country Park) Sun 7th Aug 2011
Leeds (Roundhay Park) Sat 13th Aug 2011
Manchester (Wythenshawe Park) Sun 14th Aug 2011
Derby (Darley Park) Sat 20th Aug 2011
Coventry (Memorial Park) Sun 21st Aug 2011
Cardiff (Bute Park) Sat 27th Aug 2011
Milton Keynes (Willen Lake) Sun 28th Aug 2011
Dundee (Camperdown Park) Sat 17th Sep 2011
Aberdeen (Hazlehead Park) Sun 18th Sep 2011
London (Victoria Park) Sun 2nd Oct 2011
Edinburgh (Holyrood Park) Sun 23rd Oct 2011
Glasgow (Bellahouston Park) Sat 29th Oct 2011

So if you think this is your cup of tea, we could really use your help so register up, join in and we’ll send you an information pack to tell you how you can maximise your fundraising to help us.

Please join us in supporting them on the day by watching or cheering them on. And you could even show your support by donating to their fundraising page at Virgin Money Giving. Just chose a runner and sponsor them.

Team members with fundraising pages, can be sponsored by clicking in their name which will take you to their fundraising page.

Emyr Blease, Julia Boyle,  Keith McAleese, Matthew Piff, John Rednall, Julia Roberts, Natasha Watts, Vaila Smith

The NEXT EPT team event will be the Women’s Challenge in Hyde Park, so if you are inspired to take up running, walking or jogging, why not sign up for the 5k Women’s Challenge for The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust, on 11th September 2011 – Admissions are open now SIGN UP and remember to select Ectopic Pregnancy Trust from list A when you register online, so we receive a donation from your entrance fee. Tick the we may contact you box and we’ll send you a t-shirt and information on how to maximise your fundraising, if you want to fundraise for us but even if you don’t, it’d be wonderful to have you on the team anyway.