We support all of our runners with a bright yellow Adidas running t-shirt, a fundraising pack, and there’s always a friendly person on the end of the phone if you need advice and encouragement.

All of our team are given a free entry to the Fleet Half Marathon in March, which is a perfect warm up before the big day.

Once you get to the finish line you can come to our post marathon reception to relax and recover with a massage and get some well-deserved refreshments.  Friends and family are welcome at the reception, and we’d love them to join us at our cheerpoint on the route too.

The official ballot for 2012 opened and was fully subscribed in record time.  

The ballot for the 2013 London Marathon will open on 30th April on the main website at www.virginlondonmarathon.com.  As we only receive a limited amount of charity places, we strongly urge as many of you to apply via the official ballot as well.  The ballot places will fill in a matter of hours so make a note to apply nice and early or you'll miss out.

When our places are released to us we generally look for a minimum fundraising amount of £2000 and a personal connection to blood cancers. This will not guarantee you a place, but will help us to decide when allocating them.  We typically receive around 40 places with over 300 applications for them.

A great way to boost your fundraising if you're doing a sponsored event is to raise money online.

Setting up an online giving page with JustGiving or Virgin Money Giving is a great way to raise money, enabling people to sponsor you really easily. All you need to do is visit the site, select Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research as your charity and then create your page. You can then personalise it with photos and messages and send the link to everyone you know.

Use social networking websites

A great way to increase awareness of your event is to add details to your social networking site; be it Facebook, Twitter or MySpace. It's even possible now to link these sites directly to your online giving page, making it even simpler for people to donate. Another way to inspire people, and raise awareness, is to blog about how your preparation is going. If people see the amount of time you're committing, and why you're doing your event, then they'll be more likely to dig deep!

Email your family and friends

Target your most generous supporters first. People tend to match the amounts already listed on the page.

Be persistent

Try re-sending the link to your page one week before the event to get some last minute sponsors. Then send it one more time once you've done the event - it's never too late!

Raise money while you shop

If you shop online, you can raise money for us simply by signing up with easyfundraising. Visit your favourite online retailers through this site and they will donate a percentage of your purchase to us at no extra cost to you!

Sponsorship forms

General sponsorship form.pdf