Running for Médecins sans frontières

On September 21st, I'm running the Berlin Marathon and would like to raise some money for Médecins sans frontières/Ärzte ohne Grenzen/Doctors without Borders.

To get to the startline hasn't been easy... earlier in the year, I took an otherwise innocuous tumble, landed awkwardly and managed to fracture my wrist in several places. I was operated on the same day, in a clean, sanitary environment with access to pain medication and excellent care. Nonetheless, it took weeks to recover and I'm still not 100% there. 

But I know I'm privileged. While I was able to lay on the sofa and recoup, phone in hand, I saw video after video of doctors working in the most brutal and unimaginable conditions. Patients- very often kids - being treated on hospital floors and makeshift operating theatres, amputations and operations being done without anesthetic, and hospitals and healthcare workers being targeted. 

Being a doctor or a medical professional must be hard enough at the best of times, but providing care under these circumstances and with these limitations is incredible. 

Given all this, and feeling otherwise a bit hopeless with the state of the world, I'd like to raise some money for MSF to support the work they do as the world's leading medical humanitarian aid organisation. MSF provides emergency assistance to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics and natural or man-made disasters, without discrimination and irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation. It works in over 70 countries and goes to the places where others cannot or choose not to go - including currently Gaza, Yemen, Congo, Sudan and Ukraine.