JONNY SMITH - TOP BLOKE

I think Jonny is trying to make amends for the first time we both ran our first marathon. Jonny and I ran the first thirteen miles together and then I hurt my knee. He left me to hobble on and then kept reminding me for the next 3 years that he beat me. However, no hard feelings or at least not many, it's all in a good cause.

If you are interested in sponsoring Jonny and helping the Hospital, please click here . (Please remember 26.2 miles is a long way).

20 March 2007: Run the marathon with Captain Jonny (ARTICLE FROM SALVATIONIST)

The leader of The Salvation Army in Southwark is in training to run the London Marathon and is looking for at least 500 sponsors to accompany him - in spirit, if not in person!

This will be Captain Jonny Smith's third marathon and on 22 April he hopes to complete the 26-mile course in four and a half hours, to raise at least £5,000 for a Salvation Army hospital in rural Africa.

Jonny is now training hard. He knows he has set himself not only a tough time target but also a huge fundraising target and he's come up with an unusual way of raising funds.
He has negotiated a corporate sponsor and the company Healthy Investments have donated £1,000. But Jonny is now looking for at least 500 individual sponsors who will become part of his marathon run!

'Anybody who sponsors me for £10 or more, I will place their name on the back of my shirt. Effectively, everybody who has sponsored me will run the marathon with me on the day and more importantly will raise funds to help with the mission of a fantastic cause.'
Jonny, who runs The Salvation Army church and community centre in Southwark with his wife Captain Catherine Smith, is raising money for The Salvation Army's Chikankata hospital in Zambia.

'In our church here at Southwark we do have people from Zambia and as a congregation we decided that there was a need to do our own appeal to support mission that was going on in one of the countries that are represented here. Because of this and also with my friendship with a couple who are working at the hospital, Richard and Heidi Bradbury, The Salvation Army's Chikankata hospital was the focus for the appeal this year.'

The Chikankata hospital is part of The Salvation Army's Chikankata Mission situated more than 130 kilometres south of the capital Lusaka. The Mission, which includes the Chikankata Health Services and Hospital, a secondary school for about 750 pupils and a church, serves a rural population of almost 75,000 people.

The Chikankata Hospital is a 150-bed general hospital with training schools for nurses, midwives and laboratory assistants. A mobile community health team operates in the surrounding districts with five associated rural health centres. In addition, Chikankata Hospital also runs a leprosy control programme and rehabilitation centre, an AIDS care, prevention and control programme and a four phase nutrition programme.