Last year, in a feat of inspired lunacy, my ever-patient gentleman companion, Craig, applied to run in next year's London Marathon. And the organisers, apparently quite unaware of his beer-drinking, steak-chomping, TV-devoted lifestyle, let him.

Henceforth, he has now swapped the beer for energy drinks, the sofa for the sodden leaf-strewn pavements of Sutton and Carshalton, and the comfy jumpers for some frankly alarming running gear in a bid to transform himself into Marathon Man.

Once I'd got my initial supportive comments out of the way (such as "HAAAA!!! You are SO going to die!"), I packed it in, and felt rightly damned proud of him. Not only is he not a habitual runner, but to achieve the required level of fitness, he's going to be battling not only blisters, and legs wracked with pain, but also a very naughty respiratory system.

Craig suffers from Cystic Fibrosis, diagnosed at birth. For those of you unfamiliar with the condition, it's a progressive genetically-inherited disease, which chiefly affects the lungs and digestive system. There is no cure, and while the condition can be managed with medication, physiotherapy, diet and exercise, average life expectancy is around 31 years.

However, and to his enormous good fortune, Craig is dramatically less affected than others his age - some of whom are dependent on oxygen 24 hours a day, are awaiting a lung transplant, or have in fact died. Which is why I think it's amazing he's not only able to compete in the Marathon where so many of his peers wouldn't be able to, but is completing it in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis trust, with a target of £2,000.

Which brings us to the 'shameless plug' part. I know this is completely cheeky because you don't know Craig, and you may not know anyone affected by CF, or you may have never even heard of it before. But say you visited this page, and donated a pound. Or two. And then someone else did. A miniscule amount it might be, in relation to the millions that the CF Trust needs to keep going each year, and battle for solutions to this draining, unfair, horrid disease that, within most of your lifetimes, killed its sufferers before they saw their fifth birthday. I'm not going to get all preachy on you, but think about how much money we spend on nothing at all every day, when it could be used to do something so much better.

Please, just think about it?

www.justgiving.com/craigjones_londonmarathon

By the way, the lack of my name on the fundraising page does not denote any bad-girlfriendness on my part. Rather that I am waiting until I have saved an appropriately generous amount to sponsor. Trust me, me and my cash are looking forward to feeling up .... er ....applauding the results of four months worth of running.....