CHARITY racers from Tunbridge Wells joined a crowd of over 40,000 in the London Marathon last Sunday, most ‘running for a cause’.
James Phillipson, who ran for Nourish Community Foodbank, said: “The London Marathon was the biggest event I have ever been involved in.
“What struck me was the amount of people running for a cause. Really almost everyone I saw was fundraising for a huge range of worthy causes. Some local like me, some national and some global.”
“It was not a quick run due to the volume of people and weaving through all the rhinos and men in tutus, but it was not about the time for me.”
James raised about £2,200 for Nourish, which he said ‘made it so much more worthwhile’.
Sian Evans was not only raising funds for the British Heart Foundation in memory of her father, who died of sepsis in 2010, but also repaying the charity’s commitment to her after she collapsed in the 2021 marathon.
“I passed out at 18 miles and woke up in the hospital,” she said.
“My charity, The British Heart Foundation, kindly reached out afterwards and asked if I wanted to run again in 2022 as I had raised almost double my promised amount for them.
“I was so grateful to be given the opportunity to run again as it’s a hard event to get into!”
Also writing family history was Lizzie Hammond, raising funds for The Sick Children’s Trust, which her father Brian Atkinson helped to set up, when Lizzie’s brother had leukaemia as a child.
Sophie Nutt, too, waited years to take part, after her father Simon died of pancreatic cancer in 2008, and ended up raising £2,680 for Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Harriet Rowland was another who felt ‘fortunate and grateful’ to get a place running for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, after a friend was diagnosed with lung cancer.
She completed the race despite breaking the fifth metatarsal bone in her foot earlier this year.
According to the organisers, 40,927 participants started the race, and thousands more joined the ‘virtual’ event, confirming the London event as ‘the most popular marathon on the planet’.
The London Marathon will return to its traditional April slot next year, taking place on April 23, 2023.
The ballot for the next event closes at 9pm this Friday (October 7).
