Our son Luke was born at just 24 weeks, and we ended up spending the first nine months of his life in hospital. It was a very tough time for us with operations, setbacks and a lot of uncertainty. During that time we stayed in Ronald McDonald House and to be honest, looking back I don't know what we would have done without it. Having a room there meant we could stay close to Luke while he was in hospital rather than having to rent or try travel back home every night on very limited sleep. In Ronald McDonald House we had our own room with en suite bathroom, a hot fresh meal provided everyday along with our own cooking facilities, a sitting room and a space to just get ourselves together before heading back into the hospital again. It's probably hard to understand how important something like that is until you find yourself in that situation. When your child is in hospital, all you want is to be close to them, and Ronald McDonald House allowed us to do that. Luke is four now and thankfully we've come a very long way since those days. So this year I've decided to run the Dublin Marathon and try to raise some money for Ronald McDonald House as a way of giving something back. We've set a target of €4000 but I'm really hoping we can get well beyond that. If you can throw €5, €10, €20 or whatever you can afford into the fundraiser, I'd really appreciate it. If you can't donate, even sharing the page would be a massive help. 42.2km is going to be a long day, but I couldn't think of a better reason to do it. Thanks a million for your support. Dennis