Huge Gills fan Bradley Hewitt will be one of thousands taking part in this year’s London Marathon to raise money for charity.
The 19 year old from Strood will join over nearly 40,000 people as they pound the 26 miles of London in little over three weeks time.
With a desire to do his bit for a great charity, Hewitt is looking forward to taking part:
“After my successful 50 mile triathlon for Sport Relief last year, I thought this year I want to go one step bigger and one step better.”
“One thing stuck out to me and that was the marathon. I like a challenge so I thought why not? I attempted to get in through the ballot however I was not successful so I had to get in through a charity instead. I chose to run for a charity called MACS. I, like many people who I have told about the marathon, had not heard of them.”
“It stands for Micro and Anophthalmic Children’s Society and the London Marathon is their biggest source of income. This is a charity which supports children who are born either with no eyes or underdeveloped eyes. This is a condition that develops during pregnancy and I was amazed at the statistics about the amount of children that suffer from this condition.”
“10.4 per 100,000 births suffer from this condition, which means that about 80-90 children are born in the UK with this condition every year. Unfortunately, no treatment can restore the vision of these poor children and they will never lead the life that you and I lead but this is what MACS are for. MACS do amazing work with these children and they do their best to help them lead a life which is as normal as possible.”
The main aims of the charity are (taken from their website www.macs.org.uk):
- Raise the profile of these rare conditions
- Encourage families to support each other
- Provide beneficial rest for parents, children and extended family members
- Provide financial assistance to MACS families who need to purchase equipment or services to help meet their specific needs
- To become the leading international resource on Anophthalmia, Microphthalmia and Coloboma, for parents and professionals.
Hewitt went on to explain how he has had to overcome injury to be in with a chance of making the start line:
“Training for me started off really well. I had a training timetable and I pretty much stuck to it. This included many gruelling challenges such as hill sessions, fartleks and tempo runs.”
“Although sometimes it was a struggle to get through it, the motivation was there to complete them. Training continued to go well and it started to get serious after a consultation with personal trainer Adam Loynds at Functional Fitness.”
“After his advice I wasn’t only having to focus on the running, but also on my diet. Swapping snacking on chocolate bars to snacking on apples sounded like a harder challenge than the marathon itself! However, at the end of February I felt a niggle in my left groin.”
“After having it assessed by former Gillingham club doctor Jav Mughal at Rainham Physiotherapy Centre, I was told that I had strained my left groin and that would keep me out for about 2 weeks. Although I was disappointed, 2 weeks wasn’t a great amount to miss.”
“As Jav helped me back into fitness, I got back into very light running. After about 3 light sessions, I felt another niggle, this time in my right groin. After another assessment I found out I had a slightly strained my right groin too. My left groin had recovered and now my right one was starting to go, nightmare!”
“I have only just got back in to light training again but hopefully I will be able to get back into proper training in the next few days, providing there are no further setbacks. Missing a whole month just before the marathon isn’t the best, but I’d rather have a bit of time off so it heals and therefore I can run the marathon without any injuries. I kept my fitness up by doing some long sessions in the pool but this is not quite the same.”
With such a great charity to inspire him through the pain barrier, Hewitt is looking forward to raising as much money as possible:
“As part of my fundraising task, the initial target was £1250, a slightly daunting figure. I have been overwhelmed at the donations and support I have received, probably because I keep pestering people on social networking sites and they are giving me a few quid just to make me leave them alone!”
“I surpassed the £1250 target at the start of March so I upped the target to £1500. I am now very close to that so, when I hit that, I will be increasing the target again to £2000. I know this is unlikely but if I could get there it would be amazing wouldn’t it? It’s also nice to have something to aim for.”
With so much support behind him, Brad is now looking towards what time is realistic for him:
“I was initially aiming for about 4 1/2 hours but having missed so much training, I think it is unlikely I will hit that time now so, whilst that is a nice target, realistically I am now aiming to get as close to 5 hours as possible.”
“With just 3 weeks to go, I am a bit nervous obviously but I am absolutely buzzing to be honest. I got my running number (42320) about a week ago and that it is when it really kicked in that this is serious stuff now! I can’t wait to cross that start line and I am looking forward to crossing the finish line even more.”
The support Brad in his efforts, visit his sponsorship page: http://uk.virginmoneygiving.