We’re taking on London Marathon

A FORMER Team GB rower will be taking part in this year’s London Marathon wearing his firefighter’s uniform.

Nick Middleton is among the thousands of people signed up for the 26.2-mile race, which will take place on Sunday, October 3.

Last year’s event was called off due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Middleton, 32, of Gainsborough Crescent, Henley, is running in aid of the Fire Fighters Charity, which provides physical and psychological support to existing and former firefighters and their families. He hopes to raise £2,000.

After retiring from rowing, he joined Henley fire station as a retained firefighter in 2019 and is now working full-time at Slough fire station.

Mr Middleton, who ran the London Marathon in 2016 for Children with Cancer UK, said: “I will be wearing my firefighting kit and the breathing apparatus, so it’s going to be pretty challenging.

“Because I’d done the race before, I felt like I needed to make it more of a challenge to raise money.

“We generally only wear our kit for 20 minutes, maybe an hour or two maximum, so six hours is going to be interesting.

“It keeps the heat out but it also keeps the heat in and I’ve been trying to work out how to keep cool. Hopefully, someone will throw a bucket of water over my head.

“I’ve been out doing practice runs around Henley and along the river. Most people are a bit confused as to why there’s a firefighter running around.

“I would be happy just to finish. I could probably do it in six and a half hours.”

Mr Middleton, a former captain of Leander Club, who retired from rowing in 2018, is hoping his fiancée, former rower Monica Relph, will be cheering him on together with his fellow firefighters.

He said: “What I really missed when I stopped rowing was the team aspect and the camaraderie with a group of people working towards the same goal.

“I really wanted to work in the forces or the police or the fire service.

“When I went on call at Henley, it made me realise how much I enjoyed it and I wanted to make it my career. Every day in the fire service is different and this is a really worthwhile charity.”

To donate, visit uk.virginmoney
giving.com/NickMiddletonFire
FightersCharity

Anita Downing is running for Sue Ryder to thank the charity after it cared for her husband John in his final days.

Mrs Downing, a concert pianist who performs under her maiden name Anita D’Attelis, took up running during the first coronavirus lockdown.

Her husband, an award-
winning press photographer, died in April last year and three months later she raised £1,300 for the charity by running her own 10km route.

She was unable to enter an organised race due to covid but Sue Ryder encouraged people to organise their own virtual runs.

Mrs Downing said: “I have been training towards this for the best part of a year, having started to be a regular runner during the first lockdown.

“I found that running was particularly good for my mental wellbeing and it helped me cope with bereavement.

“John passed away having suffered from lung cancer for several months. He was cared for by a wonderful team of Sue Ryder nurses.

“Their job was made more difficult as the pandemic took over but they still arrived each day with big smiles behind their masks. They supported us both as John grew weaker — I couldn’t have coped without them. They treated John with such dignity and compassion. My aim, as well as to cross the finishing line, is to raise lots of money.”

To donate, visit uk.virginmoney
giving.com/AnitaDowning

Jessica Hamer will run the marathon dressed as Tinkerbell in aid of the Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.

Her four-year-old son Ethan was born with a congenital heart defect and required lifesaving surgery at the hospital when he was just six months old. Now Ethan, who has a twin sister called Rose, is a healthy boy.

Mrs Hamer, 40, an education researcher, of Luker Avenue, Henley, decided to run in the costume as Peter Pan is the mascot for the charity. She hopes to raise £3,000.

She said: “They looked after my little boy, who had open heart surgery after he was born premature. He was really ill before that and was pretty much at the hospital from when he was born to when he had the surgery.

“It escalated and he was on lots of medication. It was a case of trying to get him to grow so he was big enough to have the surgery he needed.

“Those days were the hardest but the day we let him be put to sleep for the operation while holding him and knowing that his tiny heart would be stopped and his little body put on bypass, was the hardest of all.

“Great Ormond Street really understand how difficult it is and give support to children and the parents. They are really conscious of the trauma of seeing your child or baby in pain.

“The surgery was completely transformative for Ethan and after we got him home we were able to treat him like a normal little boy.

“The children are now four-and-a-half and they’ve just started at Badgemore Primary School.”

Ethan no longer needs medication but it is likely he will need surgery again in the future.

Mrs Hamer lives with her husband Alper, an engineer for Microsoft, and says she is only planning to run the marathon only nce due to the amount of training required.

She used to run a lot and completed an ultra-marathon for the Sick Children’s Trust but found getting ready for this year’s marathon proved to be tough.

Mrs Hamer said: “Like everyone else during lockdown, I sat down a lot for 18 months. When I started training again four months ago, it was at zero and I had to do the Couch to 5K. Just getting back to that distance was a huge effort.

“I will genuinely just happy to finish and I want to enjoy it.”

To donate, visit justgiving.com/
fundraising/jessicasmarathon
forgosh

Kelly Hargreaves, of Newtown Gardens, Henley, will be taking part in the marathon for the sixth time.

The hairdresser first ran the event in 2013 and for the last three times she was raising money for MACS, a charity supporting children born with under-developed eyes or none at all.

Mrs Hargreaves, 55, overcame breast cancer for a second time last year after having a lumpectomy and radiotherapy.

When the event was held remotely last year, she ran it with her husband Ian, 58, a landscape gardener, but he is unable to take part this year due to sciatic nerve pain.

She said: “He did have a ballot place but he had to pull out about three weeks ago. He is better now but after missing three or four weeks of training he can’t do it.

“It is a shame because he had done so much of the training but we hope he will be able to do it next year.

“MACS is a small charity and has been badly affected by covid so I would like to raise £2,500.”

To donate, visit uk.virginmoney

giving.com/KellyHargreaves