Two friends from Amersham ran from Marylebone to the bar at Amersham & Chiltern Rugby Football Club (RFC) in support of cousins who have Becker muscular dystrophy.
With the bar at their rugby club now open, Ed Wainwright (pictured right), 27, said the promise of a couple of cold beers pushed him and Ollie Choules (pictured left), 24, to run 26.2 miles on April 17 to fundraise for Muscular Dystrophy UK (MDUK.)
Ed has two younger cousins, Max and Sam Goodwyn (pictured in centre), who have Becker muscular dystrophy, a muscle-wasting condition which causes muscles to weaken and waste over time, leading to increasing and often severe disability.
Ed, a management consultant, said, “It started as a way to meet a friend over lockdown and to exercise a few times every week.
“When we realised lockdown would continue for some time, we decided to set ourselves a target to see how far we could push ourselves.
“There is no better charity to support than MDUK.
“It went really well. We did it in four hours and six minutes; I did hit ‘the wall’ 17 miles in, but managed to push through it.
“My uncle and cousin came out to support us and a load of members of the rugby club joined us at the end to see us through, which was amazing.”
The pair managed to raise £2,500 for the charity with their run and MDUK were thrilled with their efforts.
Ed added: “We honestly thought we’d struggle to reach £250, so we couldn’t believe the amount we raised. The support from the community was fantastic, and not just in terms of donations.
“Because we were in our orange tops, people knew we were running for charity so there were loads of people cheering us on and honking their horns as we ran.
“A whole pub stood up for us and cheered as we went past at one point. That was special.”
You can still support Ed and Ollie by going to justgiving.com/fundraising/WristyMarathon
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