You have the opportunity to change a child's story.

For those who know me well, know I love to help. I am lucky to have fallen into a career where I get to help people every day. I spend time in my personal life raising money for charities I am passionate about. I ran the London Marathon last year for DKMS - a charity helping those living with blood cancer. I went to Romania in '22 to work with Little John's House who were supporting Ukrainian refugees. I completed a 27-mile walk across the South Downs in England (if you know, you know...) for an incredible charity - The Kit Tarka Foundation - raising awareness of the dangers the HSV1 virus has with newborn babies. This year I am volunteering for Pancreatic Cancer at the London Marathon.

I don't however, do any of this for anything more than to help. I honestly don't understand why you wouldn't help someone in need. I just don't.

Last year I found myself in-between jobs and with a lot of spare time on my hands - never a good thing! I was looking for some volunteering work and came across Bookmark.

Bookmark are a charity that partner with schools across the United Kingdom helping children learn to read. There are a number of reasons why these children need support. The classes tend to be far too big for the teachers to be able to give them one-on-one time. Some of the children come from homes where English may not be their parents first language. They may come from homes where it is a challenge for parents to be able to afford to put food on the table, let alone to buy books. They may come from disadvantaged homes where their parents just don't have the capability to help them right now.

• Did you know that 1 in 4 children leave primary school unable to read well. Read that again. 1 in 4.?
• People with poor literacy are more likely to be unemployed.
• 43% of adults in England don't have the literacy skills they need to understand every day health information.?
• Low literacy costs the UK economy ￡81bn every year.?
• 46% of prisoners are unable to read to the expected level of an 11-year-old.?

Bookmark wants to stop this trend. Bookmark wants every child to read.?

All they ask for is 2 x 30 minutes a week for you to read with a child online. They run in 6-week programmes (12 sessions in total). I cannot tell you how incredible it is and what a huge difference you see over the 6 weeks you see. The children absolutely love the one-on-one attention, and they are so very keen to learn.

Feel free to reach out to me or to Bookmark directly to see how you can help change a child's future.