My Story

I used to run a lot of marathons.

My first was Manchester in 1996, where I went off too fast and ended up trudging through the rainy streets of Burnage being patronisingly patted on the back by passing runners before crossing the line just inside four hours and twenty minutes.

Having vowed "never again!", three years later I took on New York as a fundraiser when my mum developed breast cancer, this time finishing inside four hours.  There started a compulsion to train harder and get fitter which bizarrely led to  a weekly slot on the long running Marathon Talk Podcast and two Guinness World Records.

I ran over fifty marathons, all over the place, often tying in an October half term holiday with family and friends where my wife Ruth would run too, Luberon, Mallorca, Amsterdam.  London was always the best though and we both achieved our PBs on the same day there in 2006 where I ran 2:58:49 and she smashed 3:53:34.  I last ran London in 2015, the same year Ruth was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she died seventeen months later in April 2017.

Pancreatic Cancer UK were brilliant with Ruth when she was ill.  The support nurses were particularly helpful guiding her through a minefield of information and she was moved to have her cells harvested and used in CAR-T cell therapy research. The charity are currently working on an early-detection scheme for pancreatic cancer which will be a massive step to combatting the disease.

Thank you for your support.

Tony  X