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Wednesday October 5 | 2022
Runners put best foot forward for charity at London Marathon By Victoria Roberts and Lilly Croucher RUNNERS from Tunbridge Wells joined a crowd of over 40,000 in the London Marathon on Sunday (October 2), with most raising money for charity. Cheering crowds lined the capital’s streets to help spur on those brave enough to take on the 26-mile course. Among the runners taking part this year was a number of Tunbridge Wells runners. 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.”
KEEP ON RUNNING Sophie Nutt (centre) was running for Pancreatic Cancer UK
Commitment “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 trying to complete the marathon after she failed to finish in 2021. “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 running 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 ended up raising £2,680 for Pancreatic Cancer UK, after the disease killed her father in 2008. Harriet Rowland was another who felt ‘fortunate and grateful’ to get a place running for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation,
HAPPY TO FINISH Sian Evans was raising money for the British Heart Foundation
JAMES PHILLIPSON
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 spring slot next year, after it was moved for the last few years due to the pandemic. It will return on April 23, 2023. Applications, known as ‘the ballot’, for the next event closes at 9pm this Friday (October 7).