London marathon runners raise over £11,000!

We would like to say a huge congratulations and thank you to our team of London Marathon runners this year! David Powles took part in the London event; whilst Hayley Villarde, Emma Saxton, Kathryn Gordon and Zoe Darwin-Bunn ran the Virtual Marathon here in Norfolk. Between the five of them, they have raised over £11,000 for the new hospice!

EDP and Norwich Evening News editor, David Powles, was delighted to finally be able to take part in London, after the 2020 marathon he was due to run had to be postponed due to the pandemic. He did also run last year’s Virtual London Marathon as well, so an amazing effort! After completing the marathon, David addressed his supporters on Twitter: “Thank you, thank you, thank you for helping me to raise so much for a vital cause. It really was the fuel I needed today.”

David has raised the incredible total of £8,280.39, which includes a generous £3,000 of match-funding from Archant, who have raised several thousands of pounds for our appeal in addition to this. David himself has officially backed our appeal since we launched it in February 2019, recognising the desperate need for a new hospice for Norfolk and Waveney. He kindly recorded a video message of support during our 2020 £3 to Break Ground campaign, which you can watch here. The EDP newspaper is also officially backing us and we are truly grateful for this support.

The other marathon participants have all experienced the amazing care given at Priscilla Bacon Lodge – the existing facility on Unthank Road in Norwich that we are fundraising to replace.

Hayley Villarde chose to run for us because her parents received counselling at the Lodge. Her fundraising page reads: “This charity helped my family when Gran died in 2019, and is currently working towards building a brand new centre with more beds so that they can help even more people with palliative care and bereavement.”

Emma Saxton ran in memory of her cousin, Haley Gosling, who received care in Priscilla Bacon Lodge in 2019. This was Emma’s first marathon, having only ever run a half marathon as her furthest distance before. She had also been unable to train fully due to injury, but managed to complete the challenge by combining running with stints of walking, along with support from a friend who ran alongside her for Brain Tumour Research.

Kathryn Gordon and Zoe Darwin-Bunn ran in memory of Kathryn’s mum, Susan Stewart, who was cared for in Priscilla Bacon Lodge last year. They raised over £1,800 between them, and raising over £1,000 means they can dedicate a line of text on a display wall in the new hospice to Susan’s memory. You can read more about this and our other dedication options here.

Thanks again to all our runners for their incredible efforts, and to everyone who sponsored them. You have helped us get ever closer to our fundraising target, and to making the dream of a new hospice a reality.