Ready, steady, fundraise: The London marathon revolution

For charities, the Virgin Money London Marathon can be a crucial lifeline – and ballots are prized and envied. Meanwhile, becoming the marathon's partner is like hitting the jackpot. This year the recipient of this blessing has been the attention-grabbing Dementia Revolution, which represents the combined forces Alzheimer’s Society and Alzheimer Research UK. Dame Barbara Windsor is its unofficial figurehead – not only the inspiration for Barbara’s Revolutionaries, a running team pulled together by her husband, Scott Mitchell, but also for many others across the nation.

Behind every pound raised by runners is some sort of personal tale, often involving a loved one lost to a disease, or struggling with a condition. Among these, for instance, is 44-year-old Kath Murray, who has been inspired to run by the fact that her mother has recently been diagnosed with dementia. She is fundraising not for Dementia Revolution but for its Scottish cousin, Alzheimer Scotland.

Murray is one of the 55% of the UK applications for this year’s run who have never run a marathon before. Before she signed up for this year’s event, she considered, she says, she “could not run”. “I was not a runner,” she recalls, “In my school days, I remember, I used to duck out of the running activities. I used to say, ‘I can’t run.’ It baffled my teachers. A year ago I was interested to join a Jog Scotland group, and went to their running sessions for a few weeks, but I didn’t really stick at it.”

“I just got a bee in my bonnet," she says, "about trying to give the London Marathon a go this year. I felt more driven because of what happened with my mum. I’m not naturally a runner, so it’s been a bit of a mad thing for me to sign up to do this. With Alzheimer Scotland providing support to my family I decided obviously I should apply to get one of their spaces.”

Her mother, who is 72, was recently diagnosed as having early onset dementia. Murray says that her mum is “in denial” about her condition. Though they talk about her running and the fact that she is fundraising for Alzheimer Scotland, she is not aware that her daughter doing it “for her”. “A couple of times I’ve been down to visit her,” she says, “and had to do my training run while I’m there, but we don’t talk about it as relating to her. My mum is keeping the two things separate. She’s not really clocked that it’s all about her – and I’ve not made a point of pointing it out to her. She just thinks I’m a bit mad.”

During training she used the 16-week plan advised in the book, The Non Runner’s Marathon Trainer. “Once Alzheimer Scotland offered me the place,” she says, “which was last October, I realised I’ll need to start getting myself in gear – so I signed up and did a 5K Santa run at the start of December. That was really my very first training run if you like. For me it was a real struggle. I was pretty much the last in the group of people to finish. To begin with I had to do quite a bit of walking in between running. It’s been quite scary looking back the miles that I’ve done since starting back in January to doing short three mile training runs to recently my longest runs at 18 miles.”

Of the thousands of runners who take to the route – there were over 40,000 last year – many are Scots. The causes they run for are wide-ranging. Some, like 49-year-old Gillian McDonald, who is raising money for the Fragile X Society, are running for small charities with relatively tiny profiles – causes that struggle to stand out from the rest of the pack. McDonald observes: “You go to these events and there are charities which have hundreds and hundreds of runners, running for them. And I felt I was like there on my own. It’s something you feel is a bit unfair that they get all these charity places and there are other charities that are desperate for the profile and the funds.”

Steven Henderson, Aberdeen, 34

Running for Scottish Huntington’s Association

"It’s my third London Marathon in a row. I did my first in 2017. Huntington’s disease has been in my family for a while. It’s hereditary and has gone back through my grandfather’s side of the family. It has affected my mother, my sister. I’ve not actually been tested for it – so I don’t know if I have got it or not. I’ve got a 50:50 chance. I decided I didn’t want to be tested for it yet.

My mum started to get symptoms when she was in her thirties. She’s just coming up for sixty and it’s now got quite a hold. It has affected her mobility, her speech. One of the most noticeable things is the fact that my mum fidgets quite a lot. Overall it takes away the ability to do anything – her speech, her hearing, her memory, her walking. If you knew my mum ten years ago, you would hardly recognise her from then.

It’s something that’s very close to me, so if it were possible to find a cure, or anything to help, all the better.

I actually took up running for a bit of a laugh when an older family member said that I was putting on a bit of weight. One of my friends I played football with ran the marathon in 2016, and I thought, 'Maybe I’ll give it a go.' I got in touch with Huntington’s thinking I could do it for them.

I was never a runner, by any shape or form. But I've taken to it and I enjoy it now. It takes my mind off things like work. I’m a coordinator for an oil and gas services company and the job itself is quite stressful. Running is something I look forward to doing. It takes my mind off work and helps me cope. Doing the marathon itself gives me a sense of pride that through the money I generate and collect I’ve been able to contribute towards something rather than just hoping that some progress will happen in finding a cure for Huntington’s."

Andy Cunningham, Dundee, 35

Running for Maggie’s Centres

"When I ran the London marathon for Maggie’s Centres in 2017, it was my first ever run in anything. I was never a runner before. I was a swimmer when I was growing up and could swim for hours, but the minute it was running, I was done.

My mum had breast cancer when I was growing up and more recently she has been diagnosed with leukaemia. When I chose Maggie’s Centre in 2017 she didn’t have cancer. I chose it because I’m a teacher and I was doing my masters in pupil care and support. I chose to research into how schools can support pupils whose parents have cancer. I heard about Maggie’s and got familiar with what they do and it inspired me. I like the way they help people deal with cancer, whether emotionally or by providing that space for people to understand what’s going on with their lives.

After the first marathon, I felt the atmosphere was just so amazing that I knew I would want to do it again. This year I decided to apply to Maggie’s Centres again. I came up with this fund-raising idea of doing something with the mini penguins that Maggie’s had produced following their Penguin Parade public art thing they did in Dundee last year. My wife, a children’s author, Pamela Butchart, has lots of friends that are quite big children’s illustrators and it all kind of came into place, and we got some of them to paint them, so we could raffle them off

Between my first marathon and now, we’ve had a wee baby, who is now 16 months. First time round there was no baby and I was in the routine of following a fitness plan and got into it. This time round it’s been more difficult to find the time to do it with the baby – but it’s also been easier because I kind of know what I need to be doing distance-wise."

Gillian McDonald, Peebles, 49

Running for Fragile X Society

“I’ve got twin boys called Stuart and Matthew, who will be 21 this year. They were diagnosed with Fragile X when they were about ten years old. There are things that they find really challenging – like reading and writing – and they’re quite excitable, so they do a lot of hand-clapping. I hadn’t heard of Fragile X till I saw something about it on the news about ten years ago. It ticked so many boxes that I then asked for the boys to be tested for it which can only be done through a blood test. There is no cure – so it’s really just coping mechanisms.

As soon as we got the diagnosis of Fragile X we turned to the society – and my husband has since been its chair. Last year the society managed to win one place for the London marathon in the charity ballot and they then put it out to tender to the rest of the society. I had done some research and saw most charities are looking for a couple of thousand pounds, so I said I would try to raise £5000. In the end I raised over £16,000 by doing lots of different events.

All my focus was on the fundraising, and the running of the marathon was just something that had to happen at the end. My sons came down and they dyed their hair blue which is the colour of the society.

This time I applied to the general ballot and when I got a place it was a bit of a no-brainer that I would run for the society again.

Fragile X is the most common inherited learning disorder, but it’s quite surprising how many people haven’t heard of it – whereas everybody has heard of autism. There could be quite a lot of people who are being thought of as autistic, who could potentially have Fragile X, but they’ve not had the blood test.”

Shane Jamieson, Southampton, 28

Running for Chest Heart And Stroke Scotland

“My family have supported Chest Heart And Stroke Scotland for the past few years, following the passing of my grandfather, Harry. We ran the Berlin half marathon as a family, and I just thought I’d like to take up the challenge of a marathon.

I’m originally from Shetland and my grandfather, who owned a shop there, was always quite full of life. A few years ago he went in for an operation in Aberdeen and unfortunately during his recovery had a stroke and passed away from that. The support we received from CHSS is the reason why we’re raising for them. My grandfather was just over 70 and had this kind of attitude that he was probably going to live for ever. It came as quite a shock when he passed.

Obviously everyone has their own story of why they do the marathon. For me, the charitable cause is the reason you get out of bed – because you’re doing it for a reason and a good cause. But at the runs themselves you are looking just to get through and put one foot in front of the other.”