Posts Tagged 'run'

Running for Haydn

Published March 5, 2013 Virgin Money Giving News 1 Comment
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2013 will be the first time Richard Weymes steps up to run his first London Marathon.

Richard began running for the charity Unique, after his son, Haydn, was born in October 2003 with a rare chromosome disorder known as 18q deletion. The disorder means that a major part of his genetic data is missing from each of the billions of cells within his body.

Haydn was born with two holes in his heart and he was unable to breathe initially without oxygen pumped into his incubator. Sadly he is unable to walk, talk or take most foods orally and he is fed special milk through a gastric tube in his tummy via an electronic feeding machine. He requires numerous medicines at various times of the day.

We caught up with Richard to understand what motivates him to run:

“When Haydn was born we knew there was something seriously wrong and those first few days were crucial. He is a real battler and despite everything I could not wish for a better son.

“Unique have been so helpful to us as a family and this is why I wanted to raise funds and awareness for them in my first Virgin London Marathon.

“I have set up a Virgin Money Giving page so that people can donate and help me raise my target of £2,000.

“Every single step I run I will be thinking of Haydn and that will drive me on. He is a special little boy and I can’t wait to see him when I cross that finishing line. People say the London marathon is a tough run but when you have been through what Haydn has been through the marathon will be a piece of cake in comparison.”

Have you bagged a golden ticket?

Published November 29, 2012 Virgin Money Giving News 5 Comments
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Have you received your exclusive Virgin Money Giving Marathon kit bag? If so, watch out for a ‘golden ticket’.

We wanted to give away some extra prizes and so we’ve snuck a few ‘golden tickets’ into some of the bags. Keep your eyes peeled to see if you’re a lucky winner.

If you find one of the Virgin Money Giving ’golden tickets’ in your bag contact us on Facebook, Twitter or by email confirming your unique ticket number and we’ll get your prize to you.

If you would like to get your hands on a free, exclusive Virgin London Marathon kit bag from Virgin Money Giving, you can find details here.

Great Run competition winners

Published November 21, 2012 Competitions , Virgin Money Giving News 1 Comment
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We’re pleased to announce our winners from the prize draw we ran for all our fundraisers who set up and activated their Virgin Money Giving fundraising page for the Great North Run and Great South Run.

Congratulations to our winner Jessica Anderson who received £500 for her page raising funds for Pancreatic Cancer, and to our two runners up who each received £250 for their chosen charity fundraising page.

Christopher Haldane was running for Epilepsy Research and Samantha Jones for Ben’s Heroes Trust.

Well done to you all, and to everyone who took part and raised money for charity in the Great Run series.

Katie Piper tackles 10k

Published July 24, 2012 Fundraiser Stories , Virgin Money Giving News 1 Comment
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Katie Piper set up The Katie Piper Foundation in 2010 to help make it easier to live with burns and scars.

In 2008, she was the survivor of a rape and acid attack that left her with severe facial disfigurement. Katie spent seven weeks in the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital before starting a two year stint where she wore a special plastic pressure mask for 23 hours of every day.

Katie set up the Foundation to help others as those with scars and burns often require ongoing treatment throughout their lives.

Over the past few years and in addition to her work at the Foundation, Katie has appeared regularly on TV and has authored two books.  She is also fundraising for the charity – by doing a 10k race.

Fresh from promoting her second book “Things Get Better”, we caught up with Katie. She had never taken part in a race, but was excited and nervous about the event.

“In the lead up to the run, my training had been going well. I’ve found that I much prefer running outside rather than on a treadmill. I’ve been going to the gym a lot more, but getting outside to run has been really nice.”

Katie admitted that the weather of the ‘great British summer’ had helped her training.

“I like running in the rain and find it a lot easier. I don’t have sweat glands so it’s harder to regulate my heat in hot weather.”

It’s clear that Katie has picked up the running bug, admitting that the mental and physical benefits of running had really appealed to her.

“The psychology of running really interests me – it feels great to run for longer than you thought you could. If I do stop, I feel really annoyed that I didn’t push on a little bit longer.

“Running is also really great for improving mental health – it can make you feel a lot better, just by heading out for a run. The feeling that you can carry on is fantastic – you get such a buzz after you’ve finished.”

Despite admitting that running had given Katie real inspiration, getting out of the front door was sometimes a struggle.

“I need to listen to music when I run, but I’ve been getting a few funny looks as I’ve been running and singing along to the songs on my iPod!”

Looking at the development of her charity, Katie hoped that it would become more recognised and help even more people in the future:

“The Katie Piper Foundation has only been going for a couple of years, but it’s helped a lot of people. We’d like to continue to grow and become as big as Macmillan or Marie Curie in time.

“We hold a few workshops each year but what is really good is that through our forums some of the people on there have chosen to meet up and hold their own get-togethers and social gatherings. We’ve created a real community.

“Almost all of the people that come to see us will need treatment throughout their lives, so fundraising is really, really important for our charity.”

Katie completed her 10k in a brilliant 1 hour 3minutes and 3 seconds, raising £1,900 for The Katie Piper Foundation. You can still sponsor her fantastic efforts.

Joel takes on his two mile challenge for Tearfund

Published June 29, 2012 Fundraiser Stories , Guest Blog Leave a Comment
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On Saturday 23 June, six year old Joel Saunders took on the challenge to run two miles to raise money for Tearfund.

We heard from Joel’s dad about why helping good causes is important to his son at such a young age:

“Having discovered some of the injustice in the world – particularly that experienced by children just like him – Joel decided that he couldn’t just stand by and let bad things happen. He devised his own sponsored challenge and asked me to set up a web page for it, and then watched wide-eyed as people all over the world caught hold of his vision. When he came to do his two mile run on Saturday, he was a whisker away from having raised £6,000!”

Joel’s parents suggested he ran one mile, but Joel insisted he would run two, saying ‘that sounds hard, and it should be hard.’ Wearing his Tearfund t-shirt and accompanied by his mum, Joel gave a fantastic performance on the day:

“His mum and I thought it might be a little too much for him. We needn’t have worried – not only did he run two miles without stopping, at times he was sprinting his way across the ground. He was excited by the opportunity to do something fun but he was also determined to keep up his side of the bargain. Joel has been massively encouraged, and I think envisioned, by the amazing messages of support left for him on the fundraising page and blog. So he really went for it – and I wish we’d timed the run, because it was fast!”

Joel’s parents are proud of his sporting achievement, but also that he’s helped raise awareness of Tearfund and spread the word:

“We’re humbled to think of the amazing difference that will be made to the lives of children living in poverty, through the work of Tearfund. And perhaps most surprisingly of all, we’ve seen so many people – old and young – catching hold of Joel’s words and seeing this vital subject through new eyes. We’re incredibly proud of him, not only because he raised lots of money, but because he cared enough to try.”

You can find out more and sponsor Joel by visiting his fundraising page.

Ready for the two mile challenge

Published June 22, 2012 Fundraiser Stories Leave a Comment
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In the lead up to his two mile run on Saturday raising money for Tearfund, we heard again from six year old fundraiser Joel Saunders:

“Hello everyone. Thank you for giving loads of money to charity. I have got quite a lot of money in my poor box now. Because of this money, I think loads of children can go to school now who are poor in Africa.

When I heard that there was three thousand pounds on the website I was really excited to hear about it, and I cried for happiness.  I am only six, and I can’t believe this.

I am a little bit nervous about my run, but I know I can do it. I am going to be training with my mummy on the route. I hope you cheer for me.

Bye bye, love Joel. xx”

Joels’ Dad added that the family had been overwhelmed by the support and that Joel was really looking forward to the run – if a little daunted:

“It’s been quite an incredible couple of days – we have been completely humbled by the messages of support for Joel and his fundraising mission. We’re really grateful to everyone who has supported him, and also to everyone who has spread the word about his run.

Please do continue to support him if you can, and let’s see if we can get closer to Joel’s original target of a trillion pounds!”

You can find out more about Joel’s challenge here and sponsor him at his fundraising page.

Joel Vs. Poverty

Published June 13, 2012 Fundraiser Stories , Guest Blog Leave a Comment
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In just over a week six year old Joel Saunders will be running two miles for charity. After seeing a documentary by the charity Tearfund he was moved to start a ‘Poor Box’ and then set himself a fundraising challenge.

We heard from Joel’s dad in the run up to Joel’s two mile run:

“My son Joel is six years old. He is quite an amazing boy, for lots of reasons. One of them is this: he has worked out that the world is unjust; he has learned that poverty exists, and he is not happy about it. He had heard a few things at school and church, but when we watched a short video made by Tearfund, he decided that he couldn’t just stand by and let this happen.

So for the past few weeks, he’s been badgering everyone he meets to donate money to his fundraising appeal. It’s not hugely developed or even politically correct – it’s a cardboard Frubes container with the words ‘Poor Box’ written on the side.

This really hasn’t come from my wife and I. To be honest, we’d probably never have thought it was fair to weigh down a six year old with the troubles of the world – but he’s teaching us that children have an amazing sense of justice. So we asked him to dictate to us how he was feeling. These are Joel’s words, unedited. He may not be perfectly informed, but his heart is genuine:

“I’m getting really sad about the people who are poor in the world. I don’t understand who did this to them. I watched a video about people who are poor, and I want to help them. There has to be somewhere for them to live like a proper house, and I want someone to give them lots to eat. I want the children to have proper toys, like proper balls, toy trains… I’ve got so many toys at home, and they’ve got none. It isn’t fair that they drink dirty water from wells, and we get clean water from our taps. Some of them can’t go to school, and they don’t have any money. I want to help them so that they can have lots of food to eat.”

Joel is getting frustrated that he can’t raise much money with the ‘Poor Box’.  So, again of his own volition, he decided he’d like to do a sponsored challenge. He has decided to run for two miles (which is further than his dad can comfortably run), and so we’ve set a date in a couple of weeks time to do it. His original aim was to raise £60, because that seemed to him to be the sort of amount that can do some serious good (his other suggestion was ‘a trillion pounds).”

You can find out more about Joel’s challenge and sponsor him on his fundraising page.

First marathon done…now for the next one!

Published May 2, 2012 Fundraiser Stories 3 Comments
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A few weeks before the Virgin London Marathon we asked first time runner Ariane about her journey to the start line. Ariane was raising money for the Institute of Cancer Research.

Now that’s she’s completed – and recovered from the race, we caught up with her again to pick up some  tips for anyone thinking of taking on the challenge next year. Here’s what she shared with us:

I have the muscle ache, I have the heavy legs, I have the mental and emotional exhaustion, but most importantly I have the medal. I finished.

In the weeks leading up to the 2012 Virgin London Marathon I would tell people that I was only ever aiming to complete it to raise money for charity and that I wasn’t focused on achieving a ‘time’. Secretly however, I was hoping to finish somewhere between 4.30 and 5.30, ideally closer to 4:30.

The flaws within this secret plan of mine were such: if you’re aiming for a particular time then you have to train with that in mind.

Trial and error is a foolproof way to improve. Yes, you will make mistakes once, but [hopefully] only once. With this in mind, here are some tips – you could look at them as the mistakes I won’t be making in 2013:

  • Train! Sometimes it’s incredibly hard to motivate yourself to go out for a run after a hard day at work but you really need to.
  • Train in your raceday kit: Get your kit sorted and work out how you’re going to use this on race day. Out of sheer panic I tried to (pointlessly) cram a couple of extra gels about my person but had to ditch them at mile one just because they were so uncomfortably placed.
  • Get your name or a message printed onto your top: The crowd support on the day is incredible and really got me through some tough points. It’s so motivating to hear your name shouted out – especially when you’re flagging. Print, write or pin your name to your vest. It will make ALL the difference (though perhaps go for a nickname if yours is harder to pronounce – I heard all sorts; Adrian, Arlene, Arlana, Arianney…)
  • Gimmicks Employ a gimmick to maximise crowd support. Fancy dress is the cherry on the cake of high-visibility marathon attire, but a natty hat, jazzy running gear or a token to represent the charity you’re running for will do the trick. I heard more ‘come on The Strawberry!’ and cheers for Hulk Hogan and Mr Tumble than I did for anyone else – and it’s infectious.
  • Wave! If someone shouts your name and your concentration allows, say thanks!
  • Other runners Don’t get de-motivated by the other runners-it’s your race and you have to run it your way.
  • Fundraise By hosting a fundraising party, making sure you email friends and family for sponsorship, being active on social media or just touching base with the charity to let them know your story it will all help the charity more than you know. Including Gift Aid, I managed to raise over £1,650 for the Institute of Cancer Research. That fact alone makes everything I have accomplished – including the pain I felt during and after the race – worthwhile.

I finished my first marathon in a respectable 5 hours 30 minutes and 17 seconds (damn those 17 seconds!). It was painful – physically, mentally and emotionally and it was long and tiring. But I finished. And I would do it again in a heartbeat.

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Earlier at the Virgin Money Giving Mini Marathon start kaavmw 90b3nf 1qdxbi ^AS

Earlier at the Virgin Money Giving Mini Marathon start kaavmw 90b3nf 1qdxbi ^AS

Earlier at the Virgin Money Giving Mini Marathon start kaavmw 90b3nf 1qdxbi ^AS

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