A regional daily editor will pound the streets of London in the “biggest challenge of his life” in a bid to raise £2,500 for charity.
Alun Thorne, editor of the Coventry Telegraph, is training hard for the London Marathon in April, running the 26.2 mile course for Brain Tumour UK.
He said he was inspired by the story of ex-footballer Andy Foote, who lost his son Joseph to a brain tumour in 2007 and set up the Joseph Foote Trust to raise money for research.
The Trust, which raised hundreds of thousands of pounds a year, merged with Brain Tumour UK last year.
“My wife and I went to the annual fundraising ball the Trust held, and we got talking to Andy about the work he has done,” he said.
“As a journalist you do everything from death knocks to inquests, and do some pretty emotional things, so you have to be fairly dispassionate. But it was such an emotional occasion, and as we have two young children ourselves, we just felt like we really wanted to do something to help.
“I could have joined Andy in walking the course and collecting donations in a bucket, but I decided that if I was going to do a marathon I would run it.”
His gruelling training schedule currently sees him go on three six-mile runs a week – but by the end of January, that will need to be up to 12.5 miles.
By the end of March, he will need to be running 20 miles each time.
“I’m not regretting it a bit but it is tough – I’m not a runner and it is hard work,” he said.
“I have had some challenges in my life and have been lucky enough to edit two excellent newspapers, but that is a piece of cake compared to this. I think I can honestly say it’s the biggest challenge of my life.
“I’m not expecting to run a world-record beating time, I just want to finish. The thought of running down Pall Mall to the finish line and being able to hand over that cheque to Andy is keeping me going.”
He hopes the challenge will also help him lose weight.
Alun was the editor of the Birmingham Post for three years before taking over its sister title the Coventry Telegraph in October, three months after his predecessor left.
Darren Parkin left the Trinity Mirror-owned daily in July after having been suspended the previous month over his use of Twitter.
Anyone who wants to donate can visit Alun’s JustGiving page here.
Hats off to you Alun, but what a god-awful pic.
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if someone was paid to take that…well they dont deserve a job!
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You need two of those and they need to go on yer feet, mate
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