Forget Obamania: Maycock back in shorts

The MHF's one-man marathon team is back in action this week.

At last free from various career-threatening injuries including the staple through the finger that crocked him for 18 months and the mild stomach upset after a dodgy veggie-burger that put him out for three years, MHF development officer Matthew Maycock will tug on his trainers and take to the towpath for the Grand Union half marathon on 9 November.

Matthew, who you can see on the right during his intensive, 'no pain, no gain' endurance-based training programme will, like so many visitors before him, be running from Watford and not stopping - or so he claims - until he reaches London.

Please sponsor Matthew on his latest fund-raising run otherwise we'll have to put up with him hanging around the office in his running shorts again. We still haven't paid the glazier's bill from last time when his lithe, latex-clad presence prompted a riot as local schoolgirls tried to besiege the building.

Always ready with an encouraging comment, MHF operations director Stephen Sibbald said: 'You must be mad but very best of luck!'

• Sponsor Matthew here