Marathon fundraiser selling Dogs Trust t-shirts signed by Huey Morgan

Claire Sliwerski has been steadily training for the London Marathon this Sunday and picking up sponsors, but she's also added a new element to her fundraising: selling Dogs Trust t-shirts she had signed by Huey Morgan from Fun Lovin' Criminals.

The t-shirts are going for £30 each, and as well as putting a couple on eBay, Claire is selling them directly to interested parties. You can contact her to buy a t-shirt using her email address:

hueytshirts@hotmail.co.uk

Please don't make a payment directly to Dogs Trust for a t-shirt as this will need to go through Claire. We are in regular contact with her and can assure you the funds will come back to us.

If you are not interested in a t-shirt but would like to support Claire's run, visit her JustGiving page.

Good luck Claire!

Jo-Emma Larvin runs the Flora London Marathon for Dogs Trust!

Model Jo-Emma Larvin, also known as partner of boxing star Joe Calzaghe, has strapped on her trainers and chosen to donate the proceeds of her upcoming marathon run to Dogs Trust!

Here she is at one of our centres meeting one of the dogs the funds raised will be helping (more photos can be seen on the Dogs Trust Flickr stream):



You can visit Jo-Emma's fundraising page at JustGiving to lend your support and sponsorship. In the meantime, Jo-Emma will also be sending us the occasional blog post to mark her progress, so you can read about her efforts in her own words. Here's the first:

Well my training is certainly coming on. I've done up to a 16 mile run!! I can't believe I did it. In fact I can't believe I'm doing the marathon full stop! I've gone from only managing 2 miles in january to this, so I think I can pat myself on the back :-)

My legs feel do feel a bit like lead, but I do some stretching and I always eat straight away then I'm ok.

After meeting all the other runners when I did the half marathon at Silverstone and picking their brains for tips I've devised my own training plan. I'm doing a big run on the weekends and 2 little ones (6/7 miles) in the week.

I still take my lovely Sonny on loads of walks too. I actually think it's all the walking I've done with him over the 4 years I've had him that has given me a certain amount of stamina. Even days I don't feel like walking he looks at me with those eyes and I get going. Dogs are certainly great for fitness!!

I'm eating pretty much the same just adding more carbs to my meals. That part's easy for me as I love bread and potatoes etc I love eating big plates of mash and gravy.Yum! I keep getting the Lucozade sports drinks as well as I know thats what they give you at the marathon. I'm getting used to them now. Feel yuck today because had a late night and sooooo dont want to run today. I'm gonna have a gorgeous breakfast of 2 slices of brown toast, 1 with peanut butter, 1 with honey and banana mashed over both of em. Then I'll take Sonny for a walk and get ready for my run!

Good luck, Jo-Emma! Keep us posted.

Raising funds for Dogs Trust through sporting events: the 2009 calendar

Every year, Dogs Trust is lucky enough to have dedicated sports fans take part in a number of endurance runs which raise money to help us care for thousands of dogs. We hope 2009 will carry on this grand tradition, so to make sure you sign up and get training in good time we've compiled a list of runs to look out for over the coming months.

We have places in the following events:

London Marathon - 26th April (ALL charity places gone, but you can use your own!)

Great Manchester Run (10k) - 17th May, entry deadline 6th April

Edinburgh Marathon - 31st May, entry deadline 8th May

British 10k London Run - 12th July, entry deadline 3rd July

London Triathlon - 1st & 2nd August, entry deadline 1st June

Great North Run (13.1 miles) - 20th September, entry deadline 10th July

Great South Run (10 miles) - 25th October, entry deadline 20th August


For more information, contact fundraiseforus@dogstrust.org.uk or call 020 7837 0006.