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Regional press news - this story published 12 October 2006

Sibling reporters raise £1,300 with charity run

by holdthefrontpage staff

Two reporters from The Northern Echo have raised more than £1,000 for charity after completing this year's Great North Run.

Brothers David and Will Roberts, who both work for the Newsquest paper in Darlington, teamed up with their sister to run the race in aid of Breast Cancer Care after their mother, Kate, was diagnosed with the disease in 2005.

David, (28), finished the race in a time of 2h 17m, only one second behind his younger brother, Will, (24). Their sister, Mary, (26), finished in a time of 2h 21m.

David said: "I expect to be getting a bit of grief off Will over the next few weeks, especially as this was my second Great North Run and Will's first.

"However, the money raised was the main thing. Our Mum's doing fine now, but others arent so lucky, so its nice to be able to help.

"A lot of our sponsorship came from people at work - although I think a lot of that was because they wanted to see us in our pink running vests."

Will (left), Mary and David

Will added: "Despite the fact that my legs are very stiff now, it was a great experience.

"You seem to get pulled along by the other runners and the crowd, so in the end it wasn't half as bad as I thought.

"It was great that all three of us ran most of the race together, it was for our mum and I know she was really proud of us at the end."

The siblings raised £1,300 between them.

Other Northern Echo runners taking part in the race included photographer Chris Booth, (30), who raised more than £300 for the British Lung Foundation, in memory of his father who died in 2000 from emphysema and bronchitis.

He completed the half-marathon in 1h 45m.

He said: "I have done it for the last four years and I think I will do it until my legs give up."

Sarah Beadle, (32), who works in the papers Pre-press department, raised around £1,000 for the Sarah Matheson Trust, which promotes research into and offers support to sufferers of Multiple System Atrophy.

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