A CRUEL twist of fate meant international skier Michael Wroe never fulfilled his dream to compete at the Winter Olympics.

So Mr Wroe is going to make sure he savours every moment of another great sporting festival soon - the London Marathon.

Mr Wroe, who now works as a media studies and English teacher at Cherwell School, Oxford, was denied his chance to take part at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, after a crash on the slopes two months before the Games left him with an injured knee.

But the former alpine and slalom skier, who lives in Hurst Street, East Oxford, will be running in next month's 26.2-mile race to raise funds for the Children's Liver Disease Foundation (CLDF).

The charity has supported both him and partner Elly when their son Arthur, now two, was diagnosed with biliary atresia, a life-threatening and incurable liver disease.

Mr Wroe said: "The London Marathon is something I have wanted to do for more than ten years.

"Getting injured before the 1994 Olympics was a huge blow at the time and I ended up not taking my place in the Olympic squad.

"I will always have to imagine what it would have been like to take part in the Olympics, it would have been a fantastic experience.

"But taking part in the London Marathon will be quite an experience too."

Mr Wroe first became interested in taking part in the marathon more than a decade ago when he learned that Chris Brasher, one of the training partners of Oxford's sub-four-minute mile legend Sir Roger Bannister, was a founder of the London event.

He said: "Chris Brasher was one of my main sponsors when I was skiing, so when I discovered he was behind the marathon I immediately became interested in it.

"With everything that has happened with Arthur, choosing to do it for the CLDF was an obvious choice.

"We received tremendous support from the CLDF when Arthur was diagnosed and it is still fantastic to know they are there for us. To families like ours it provides a lifeline."

He is hoping to raise £1,500 for the charity and is appealing for people to visit his online sponsorship page at www.justgiving.com/mikeathon

  • For more information, visit www.childliverdisease.org or call 0121 212 3839.