Pevensey runner finishes 26-mile charity challenge
Philip Wright with his children Philip is taking part in a long distance run
AN ENVIRONMENTAL health officer whose wife has a brain tumour has completed a 26-mile leg of a long distance relay run.
Pevensey man Philip Wright, 37, completed the RelayGB – the marathon world record attempt for distance running. The father-of-two ran the race in tribute to his wife Karen.
RelayGB is a new charity fundraising challenge that will see hundreds of runners covering 2,600 miles around Britain in over 100 non-stop marathons. The mission is to break the world record for distance relay running while raising £500,000 in aid of Brain Tumour UK.
RelayGB started at 8am on May 4 in London, and the relay runners took the route out to Kent and along the south coast, before heading north at Exmouth, Devon and making a circuit of Britain, taking in major cities including Southampton, Bristol, Cardiff, Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle.
Philip completed the stretch between Eastbourne and Shoreham-by-Sea in just over five hours, starting at 4.30am.
“It was pitch dark when I started,” said Philip.
“The last six to eight miles were very hard, because even though I’d been training, I was not fully prepared for the hills. They took their toll after a while,”
Philip has so far raised more than £2,500 in aid of Brain Tumour UK in tribute to his wife Karen, who was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour during the birth of their third child, Ben, two years ago.
Philip said, “Karen has had surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy and has responded well to the treatment, but the uncertainty associated with the disease has been difficult for us.”
Andrea McLean, television presenter and Brain Tumour UK patron, said, “I’m really inspired by the hundreds of runners and teams taking part in RelayGB to raise vital funds for Brain Tumour UK. Research is seriously underfunded, so every penny we raise from this world record event will make a massive difference to the lives of people affected by brain tumours.”
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Monday 20 May 2013
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