Members Set Guinness World Record at London Marathon
We know that our members are amazing and often do wonderful things both for charity and to challenge themselves physically and mentally, but now we have some Guiness World Record holders amongst us!
Three long standing members, Paul Owen, Richard Yeeles and Graham Sturge, recently ran the London Marathon in a ten-person test tube rack! They completed the 26.2 miles in 5 hours, 41 minutes and 47 seconds and in doing so set a new Guiness World Record for the fastest marathon in a ten-person costume!
‘The Big Purple Challenge’ was led by Graham Sturge and alongside him the ten strong team comprised Simon Short, Claire Short, Paul Owen, Richard Yeeles, Christopher Setterfield, Julie Pritchett, Jodi Simpson, Marcela Bell and Francine Setterfield – all from Bromham and all fundraising for the Marathon’s charity of the year, Pancreatic Cancer UK.
Graham tragically lost his dad to Pancreatic Cancer in 2017, the night before the marathon, and he has been fundraising and creating awareness since then. Their eye-catching costume was inspired by Pancreatic Cancer UK’s campaign ‘The Ultimate Test’ – the thought being that by completing the ultimate test of physical endurance, runners will help to develop a world-first early detection test for the disease. The charity is developing a breath test to be used as an early warning sign of the disease, which could help save countless lives in the future.
The team have already raised a phenomenal £108,000 which will go towards this test. If you would like to add to this total, the team would be extremely grateful and have shared their fundraising link here.
Graham is no stranger to marathons with this being his 28th marathon! He said, “it brought a whole new level of physical torment and was like trying to manoeuvre an articulated lorry down a country lane!”
Congratulations to the whole team from all of us for a tremendous achievement!
If you’ d like to read more, the BBC also covered their quest, which you can read here. Unsurprisingly they also drew the attention of the media team on the day and their TV clip can be seen here.
