Hatch Warren Runners
Being a runner, whether a beginner or established, brings new challenges every year. With new goals and milestones comes the opportunity to fundraise and Hatch Warren Runners have always tried to raise money for various charities. With a lot of big events over the last few months our fundraising efforts have reached an all time high…
Brighton Marathon was one of the first big marathons on the calendar and Sharon Bryan ran for Rowan’s Hospice. She had a target of £400 but raised over £2000 finishing in a Shazz-mazing time of 4:18. On the same day about 40 Hatch Warren Runners hit the beaches at Bournemouth raising money for the British Heart Foundation across a number of races – 5k, 10k and half marathon.
Next on the agenda was London Marathon. With ballot places at a premium many runners turn to charities to get a space to run London. The fundraising targets are high – typically £1800 – £2000 – so these places are accepted with a great deal of trepidation. And fundraising cannot rely on sponsorship from friends and family so a great deal of fundraising creativity is called for.
The first person to confirm a London charity place was Helen Brooker. Her daughter, Megan, was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes just over a year ago so Helen’s natural choice was to run for Diabetes UK. With a target of £1800 Helen set out on her fundraising journey with baking and decorating cakes, a nearly new sale and a fabulous Onesie mile event at Down Grange Athletics track. This resulted in over £5000. And with a finishing time of 4:07 Helen has a lot to be very proud of.
The next charity to get our attention for London Marathon was Children with Cancer UK. With our community touched by the short life of Jayden Wilson, three Hatch Warren Runners chose this charity to run for and were soon joined by five Hatch Warren Runners who had ballot places making a huge team consisting of Sarah Smith, Jane Croft, Craig Povey, Danielle Butler, Julian Croft, Mark Butler, Andy Yule and Simon Brown. Again fundraising became very creative with a 24 hour relay race, paella night, Christmas wreath sales and a charity ball at Beechdown. And a fabulous amount of £18000 was raised with respectable times all round for the Children with Cancer runners.
For London we also had Nicola Lawrence raising over £1000 for St Michael’s Hospice and Neil Cooper raising over £900 for Macmillan Cancer Support. Lastly Kevin Biles raised over £800 for the Firefighters Charity by running an Ultra 50 mile Marathon and London Marathon. His fundraising will continue throughout 2015.
Finally, on 13 May 100 Hatch Warren Runners turned up to run the St Michael’s Hospice 5k and 10k race at Down Grange. Four of the team helped check the course in the afternoon by pre-running it to check the distance and any potential run hazards. Then 100 ‘Hatchies’, kids and adults turned up to run. We were certainly the biggest and noisiest crowd there and the money raised on the night will pay for a Hospice at Home nurse for a whole year.
HWR meet on Mondays and Wednesdays at 7:15pm with runs going from the Prtsmouth Arms and the Co-op in Beggarwood. Members meet, warm up and then break into groups depending on what distance and pace they plan to run.
For more details visit www.hwrunners.co.uk, email hwrunners@sky.com or look for Hatch Warren Runners on Facebook.
