Today, in the last of our three-part series focusing on amateur runners from Oxfordshire taking part in Sunday's Flora London Marathon, we meet an Oxford University professor, a sixth former and a vet
SIXTH former Tom Freeman is running to raise cash for his 11-year-old half brother, who suffers from a severe form of arthritis.
Tom, 18, from Cope Close, in Botley, Oxford, is hoping to raise £1,500 for the Arthritis Research Campaign after his brother Isaac was diagnosed with chronic polyarticular arthritis in 2006.
The affliction left Isaac, a pupil at Cherwell School and a keen footballer, unable to get out of bed unaided.
Oxford University professor Richard Pring is to celebrate his 70th birthday running the marathon.
Prof Pring will be attempting his 23rd marathon to raise money for the Oxford-based Family Links charity.
Prof Pring, formerly director of the university's Department of Educational Studies, is currently heading a major study into the education of 14 to 19 year olds for the Nuffield Foundation.
But he still finds time for regular 6am training runs up Headington Hill.
Charlie Rogers knows every step she takes will be for the children she works with.
Nurse Charlie, a 42-year-old mother-of-two, is a paediatric nurse who helps look after children with cancer in Oxfordshire.
She is running for is CLIC Sargent.
Cheering on Charlie, of Church Street in Ducklington, will be her husband David and two daughters, Imogen, 13, and Rosie, ten.
Father-of-seven Mike Rowe of Greenacres Drive in Wantage, is running to raise £2,000 for the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
And the Wantage businessman thinks he could be the youngest grandfather to conquer the 26-mile course.
He said: "I made one attempt at the marathon in my early 20s, but I didn't succeed, which may have been something to do with coming straight out of a nightclub to do the run, so I threw in the towel."
Mr Rowe said wanted to give something back into the charity, which has helped his five-year-old daughter Paige who was born blind.
Civil servant Scott Johnston, 27, a Ladygrove Park Primary School governor, is not only running the marathon - he is also running a sweepstake in which his supporters can guess his finishing time.
Scott Hooper, A PE teacher at King Alfred Sports and Community College in Wantage, is hoping to race across the finish line in record time.
He will run for Action for Blind people, a charity close to his heart and he is hoping to raise £1,400.
Mr Hooper said: "I used to work for the organisation as a sports coach and co-ordinator.
"I have a passion for working with young people and believe blind and visually impaired children should be given the chance to get involved with sport and improve their health and self-confidence."
Team Evolve, made up of Lyn Owen, Leanne Millar, Debbie Curtis and John Stockerall corr, all from Bicester, are running to raise money for Children With Leukaemia.
The team chose this charity having been inspired by Bicester youngster Matthew Holder-Wooloff who is battling the disease.
Ms Owen, 49, of Falcon Mead, Langford Village, met Matthew when he took his two-year-old black Labrador to her local dog-training club.
There, Ms Owen was told Matthew, 14, of Shearwater Drive in Langford village, suffered from leukaemia.
Earlier this year Banbury vet Michael Punter finished the gruelling Devizes-to-Westminster Challenge.
On Sunday, Mr Punter, a member of the Banbury and District Canoe Club, is running to raise money for the Children's Society.
Faith Cook wants to keep fit while she is at university, so she's set herself the target of completing this year's London Marathon.
The 22-year-old student of real estate management at Oxford Brookes University, is one of more than 1,000 running for Children with Leukaemia Faith, who lives at Brighthampton, near Standlake, said: "The furthest I've run so far is eight miles - but I've been training."
Michael Punter, of Mollington, is running to raise money for the Children's Society.
He said: "I get most of my exercise sitting on my backside, canoeing and kayaking.
"The London Marathon is something I have watched on Television and I have always wondered what it would like to take part."
Guy Lawson is the pharmacy manager at Sainsbury's in Banbury.
This will be his third London Marathon and Guy will be raising funds for Diabetes UK.
He got involved because his son was diagnosed with diabetes five years ago.
He said "Raising money for Diabetes UK means a lot to me."
Dave Barber is running the marathon to raise cash for a bursary set up in memory of Dave Thorne who worked at the Woodlands Education Centre in Wales, a facility used by schoolchildren from across the county.
And despite suffering from high cholesterol, David Sawyer, 52, from Chalgrove, is attempting the race to raise money for HEART UK, a charity looking into the problems of the inherited disease.
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