14 April 2020 – Unipart Logistics General Manager for the Kimberly-Clark contract Sara Sneath was due to run the London Landmarks Half Marathon to raise money for the hospice that cared for her mother.
When Coronavirus cancelled the event, Sara was undeterred and ran her own Local Landmarks challenge, raising almost £1,000 for the charity. Here is Sara’s story.
My mum sadly passed away last June following a short battle with cancer of the throat and mouth. Two weeks earlier, at the funeral of my uncle (her brother), I entered the ballot for the London Landmarks Half Marathon which was due to run on 29 March 2020.
This was the last time I really spent time with my mum, a sad occasion and she was wheelchair bound and very poorly. Two weeks later on 27 June, mum died in the Garden House Hospice, Letchworth. The same day I had an email saying that I had got a place in the ballot for the London Landmarks.
I saw this as a sign that I should run this for my mum. I wanted to raise as much money as possible for the hospice that cared for her so well. Other charities were sending me emails and asking me to run for them offering quite a few additional perks but I decided that this was something I needed to do in memory of my mum.
I was quite upset when the Landmarks was cancelled but it was shortly afterwards that they announced that we could do the “Local Landmarks challenge” which is a local run and then post it to their site. This was encouragement for me to reach out to more people to sponsor me.
In total I raised £916.66 for the hospice and I am really grateful to all of my friends and colleagues who sponsored me. The Bridgwater site did a collection for me in early July and raised nearly £100, which was fantastic – big shout out to the great team in Bridgwater and the fantastic work they are doing!
I ran my local landmarks challenge on Saturday 28 March – which I have called The Conkers Landmarks Challenge, as I ran round the trails of the local park run. My son supported me all the way round on his bike. It was a very emotional run.