This in from the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, in their own words. Ed
The team of charity runners included islanders Joe Iles, Lucy Hardy, Sarah Churchill-Slough, Jess Gray, Claudia Manser, Amy Cada, Deborah Wright, Phil Oxenham, Joss Drabble, Chris Lucas and his Moore Stephens team of 12 runners who collectivly raised a valuable £4,824.67 towards the current total of £12,866.67 raised for the Trust.
On a day when even the professionals struggled with the conditions, the Trust’s motley crew ploughed on, Joe ‘The Rhino’ Iles describes what the runners were up against on the day,
“It was incredibly windy this year which made the race a lot tougher than normal, the last two miles along the seafront to the finish were all against the wind. My colleagues Sarah Churchill-Slough, Lucy Hardy and I managed to sick together through out the race which made the whole experience much more fun as we were able to support each other when the going got tough.”
Fantastic team atmosphere
Carrying the runners through the turbulent race was the fantastic team atmosphere from the Trust’s corporate running teams Moore Stephens, LCH.Clearnet and Pain Hicks Beach.
One of the Trust’s most successful runners on the day was Matt Chambers, whose cousin Harry sailed with the Trust this summer as part of his recovery from cancer. Not much of a runner, Matt was surprised to cross the finish line in 01h 11m 58s, just seconds ahead of 400m Olympic Gold Medalist, Iwan Thomas.
“My aunty Becky and I were running today for her son Harry. I’ve never done a 10 mile race before so was aiming for about 1h 20m, I’m not really a runner and didn’t do much training just a lot of football, but I managed a 1h 11m race and for about three miles at the end I was running with Iwan Thomas and managed to beat him over the line at the end by a couple of seconds.“
Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust
The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust is an Isle of Wight based charity that gives young people in recovery from cancer the chance to rebuild their confidence through sailing. Celebrating their 10 year anniversary, the Trust has grown beyond every expectation into a national charity.
Working with every young person’s primary cancer care unit in the UK, taking young people aged between 8-24 who are recovering from cancer on four-day sailing trips.
If you would like to make a donation in support of these intrepid Isle of Wight runners please donate online
