So at the beginning of last week an opportunity presented itself. The company I work for, Skandia, was taking part in Sport Relief by having a dress down day on the Friday.

One of my colleagues suggested I set up a rowing machine up and collect from other members of staff. After a bit of digging around eventually I managed to arrange to set it up for the afternoon.

It was just deciding how to do it? I decided to do a marathon (26.2 miles), it was going to provide me with an idea about how fit I was for the London Marathon.

At 12.30am I started to row and kept going. Initially not many people showed interest but after a while donations were put in the bucket. After half way through the BBC showed up to film me later that day I appeared on South today and on Sunday the Mile show.

I finished three hours and 48 mins later. Afterwards I found out I was on the staff intranet with members of staff emailing me congratulating me on how I done.

It was good first step in raising awareness of this year’s mission and proved I was fit. The next step is plucking up the courage to get back on the bike ...