In April 2006 I ran the Flora London Marathon in a time of 3 hours 46 minutes. To achieve this I had gone from being a 17 stone, bone idle, heavy drinking, junk eating, slob, to a 13 stone running addict. I had trained 5 or 6 days a week, including training runs of 20 miles at a time.

http://leightonsrunning.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html

Two days after I completed the Flora London Marathon I went into a hospital in London with my wife to attempt having a baby through IVF. We had been married for 7 years at this point with no luck on the child front.

The IVF process was succesful, and so we planned a happy future together. I took on a second job, meaning I worked 6 days a week, and around 60 hours a week. This way we could buy all the things we wanted to for our soon to be born child.

In July 2007 I had a complete breakdown. I was admitted to hospital with severe depression and anxiety. I ended up being off work from July 2006 through to January 2007. I lost my part time job during this time, and was basically consigned to the sofa or the bed whilst taking medication.

In February 2007 my wife gave birth to our son, Ronald.

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/leightonrwilliams/RonaldMartinWilliamsPhotoAlbum

In April 2007 i was readmitted to hospital for another 17 nights as I had relapsed.

It has now been over 14 months since I fell ill, and my son is now seven months old. I have missed being involved in most of those 7 months due to my illness, and the effects of my medication.

However, I am now back at work, and am recovering well. I hope to be allowed to start doing some exercise again as of November this year, and would love to get back to running as I am now over 16 stone again (due to bed rest, etc), and I would really really like to take my son with me in a buggy so that we can do this together.

I'd love to go running either every morning or evening with him, showing him the country lanes, trees, bushes, wildlife etc.

To do this safely (for him), I would like to buy a special buggy. It's called a "Baby Jogger - Performance Series 20". Unfortunately these are £300 ($600), and with my wife now working part time after the birth of our son, and me only having the one job, money is tight.

I have never asked people to help me out before as I believe in working hard for what you want, but I so desperately want to start running with my son before the end of the year, that I felt I had no other way of buying one of these buggies.

Thank you for reading my page, and I really do appreciate any support you can offer us.