My name is Jack Davies, I live in London, love running and I’ve been a professional cricketer for Middlesex since I was 18. Cricket’s always been my passion since I was a young kid, since becoming a professional I’ve always loved fitness, and at the end of my career I always wanted to do something for charity where I pushed myself to do something a bit wild. I chose the Brompton Fountain for their incredible work and the Cricketers’ Trust as a thank you to the sport which has let me complete my childhood ambition of doing it professionally, hopefully with this event I (and some special guests) can raise a substantial amount for both charities to help them continue their amazing work.

I first came across The Brompton Fountain through Mark Stoneman, back when he was at Middlesex. He spoke so fondly of the charity and what it meant to the families he’d seen it support, and it stuck with me. The more I’ve looked into it since, the more amazed I’ve been by just how much a charity this small manages to do. The Brompton Fountain works alongside Royal Brompton, Harefield Hospital and Evelina London Children’s Hospital, supporting children with serious, often life-threatening heart and lung conditions, and the families going through it with them. It’s not statutory funded either, everything they do relies entirely on people fundraising and donating.

What struck me most is how much of their focus is on the parents as much as the children. Many of the families they support are going through the most frightening week of their lives, a child undergoing heart surgery, in intensive care, facing a diagnosis no parent is ever prepared for. The Brompton Fountain funds the equipment, the family accommodation, the playroom resources and the emotional support that surround that experience from the moment of diagnosis onwards, helping families feel less alone and a little more held during a time that’s genuinely terrifying.

That’s ultimately why I wanted this challenge to support them specifically. It’s easy to overlook a charity this size next to the bigger, better-known names, but the impact they have on individual families is enormous. Every year there are 5000 babies born with CHD per year, a quarter of those will need surgery in year one, roughly 24 babies every single week go into a cardiac operating theatre in their first 12 months of life.

Running 24 marathons in 24 days felt like the right way to try and match, in some small way, the resilience of the families and children this charity supports every single day.