Richard shines at the London Marathon

At NAS Stafford we are always delighted to highlight the achievements of the wonderful people who make up our family. On Sunday our member Richard Booth, whose daughter regularly attends our youth group, ran the London Marathon. Read his story below. 

I was running the London Marathon for Shine Cancer Support, a tiny charity but one of the only ones in the UK who support young adults in their 20s, 30s and 40s with a cancer diagnosis.

They supported my wife Kathryn, Alanna and I when Kathryn was diagnosed with Bowel Cancer in Oct 2018.  She passed away in Oct 2022 following 7 operations and 3 courses of chemotherapy, and ironically it was on that day that I found out I had been successful in the ballot for the 2023 London Marathon.  I couldn’t run that one as I didn’t have enough time to train so deferred to the 2024 race.

Whilst I have been running a for a number of years, it was the first time I’d attempted a marathon.  I started the training in the new year and all went to plan.  Despite seeing it on TV many times nothing prepares you for the number of people who line the streets to cheer everyone on.  The first 15miles were amazing and I felt great, probably a little too fast but I was running so comfortably I decided not to change anything, then around mile 15 I could feel something was a little different in how I was running.  By mile 18 my right leg had pretty much stopped working and I had slowed down considerably.  Luckily the tens of thousands of people screaming my name pushed me along to the finish.

My time was 4hrs 25mins 59secs.  As it currently stands including Gift Aid we’ve raised over £5350 for Shine Cancer Support which will help them so much in what they do.