One of Sirona’s managers raised £1,900 by running a marathon in the car park of our Henderson Rehabilitation Unit in Thornbury to raise funds for the unit after being inspired to do so by a service user.
Emily Denham, Locality Hub Manager South Gloucestershire, had been finding it tough to be motivated to run during lockdown. In the past she has run many distances including, in 2018, six marathons in six days across the Sahara desert – the Marathon des Sables (MdS) known as the Marathon of the Sands.
But following a conversation with an individual at the Henderson Rehabilitation Unit one afternoon, who revealed he had been a runner, completing 50 marathons, Emily was motivated again to complete the 26.2 mile run.
Emily agreed she would run a car park marathon to raise money for the Unit and its sister Skylark Rehabilitation Unit in Yate and completed 366.8 laps with 14 laps equalling one mile.
Emily said: “I am thrilled to have completed this car park marathon raising funds for our units. I have found it difficult to motivate myself to run during the lockdown, but after chatting to someone in our care on the unit about the joy of running, I decided to get out there and run for both of us.
“I’d like to thank everyone who supported me in this endeavour; it means so much to be able to contribute to the unit by running a marathon distance in the car park.”
Emily recorded the marathon run using an app and was sent a medal through the post for completing it. She gave the medal to the person who inspired her and he was thrilled and although he has left the unit, they have agreed to meet after lockdown to talk more about running.
The fundraising page is still open so anyone who wants to donate can do so at: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/emily-denhamandmrr
There is also further information on the Just Giving page, in Emily’s own words, about why she took part in this run.
The marathon took place on Friday May 8th.
