My Story

I am lucky enough to have a place to run the 2025 London Marathon, raising funds for the Sailors' Society (for the glory of God and the honour of my run club!).

Why the Sailors' Society?

As you may know, I work at the margins of shipping, litigating shipping disputes. Through this, I have learned how vital seafarers are, and how difficult their job can be. 

95% of Britain's trade comes by sea, and shipping contributes around £6 billion to our economy: I suspect every one of the thousands of people running the London Marathon will be wearing something that came to this country in a shipping container. Without seafarers, none of that would be possible.

Sailors are resourceful, professional people, but they sacrifice a lot. In modern merchant shipping, time is money. Sailors are away from home for months on end, and communicating with loved ones is often difficult. Crews are small, and often transitory; time in port is limited; and terminals are often in out-of-the-way places with little recreation to offer. Events over the last few years - the COVID pandemic, when many sailors could not get home; the war in Ukraine, when ships were stranded for months in the Black Sea; and the dangers to shipping off Somalia and Yemen that have resulted in ships being sunk or damaged with loss of life - underline this sacrifice.

The Sailors' Society is a Christian charity that works to provide pastoral, material and educational support for seafarers of all faiths and none. Its chaplains offer a listening ear and a friendly face; its Crisis Response Network helps sailors who are wrongfully imprisoned, stranded, or abandoned without pay (sadly, more common than it has any right to be); it offers peer support networks where sailors can share difficulties with others; and it offers online training to help build resilience.

The privilege inherent in my job is to think about the problems seafarers have, and then go home at the end of the day. Sailors don't have that luxury. This is my way to give something back to them.

Why me?

I've been around the sea for as long as I can remember, so that's not surprising. The running thing is perhaps more surprising. I'm an unlikely runner. I always hated. I only took it up voluntarily during the infamous pandemic. I am still, I think, not anyone's first choice for an athlete, but I love running as a way to get outside and glorify God. I ran a half marathon for the first time only last year and have never yet run a marathon. A marathon, at 26.2 miles, is longer than the distance across the English Channel from Dover to Calais; since the Channel is one of the world's busiest seaways, it seemed worthwhile to have a go at running such a long distance in aid of sailors.

Anything you can offer, even comic rebuke, will be welcome.

AMDG!