Is running a charity marathon worth the sweat and tears?

Jo Wood ran her first marathon with her husband Mike in 2015 and will run her eighth marathon for charity at Manchester [Jo Wood] With charity places increasingly seen as the only way into major races like London, thousands of runners are juggling emotions, training and rising fundraising targets. So is running for charity becoming a privilege not everyone can afford? "I'm going to run the marathon with a picture of Jack on my back, to tell everyone that he was here, that he was alive.

" Jo Wood lost her baby when he was just six days old and felt nothing would ever remove the pain and devastation. But with help from baby loss charity Sands and mental health charity Mind the agony gradually started to ease. Since then Jo, from Saltash in Cornwall, has discovered a love of running and found a way to give back to those charities by running marathons.

She will have a picture of Jack on her shirt when she joins 42,000 runners taking on this weekend's Manchester Marathon, while some 60,000 runners are set to start the 2026 TCS London Marathon on 26 April. "Running a marathon for charity isn't just about raising money, it's about raising awareness - that's why I am running for Sands and for Jack," she says. "I want women to feel they can talk about their babies.

I want people to stop shying away from their names, their stories, their existence. " Jo is running Manchester Marathon for the baby loss charity Sands after the death of her son Jack in 2006 [BBC] Jo's devastation at losing Jack started her marathon journey in 2012 when she ran with husband Mike in aid of Children With Cancer UK. "We could not imagine what people go through when a child is diagnosed with cancer and having to see that child suffer," she says.