Mega marathon
A TARBERT woman has completed a mammoth marathon in aid of a cancer charity.
TARBERT marathon runner presented a cheque to the Beatson Cancer Charity last week after embarking on an arduous challenge to raise funds for the Scottish organisation.
Carolyn McAlpine, 33, took time out of her day job at the Argyll and Bute Council headquarters to present some of the team from the charity with a cheque for £15,029, the final fundraising total raised from her Mega Marathon.
Carolyn embarked on a gruelling challenge last year to complete 15 marathons in 15 days across the entire catchment area of the charity on the West Coast of Scotland.
Having successfully trudged 393 miles in almost a fortnight, she was pleased to finally present the Beatson Cancer Charity with a cheque for the money raised from her exploits. As well as the fundraising, Carolyn is keen to raise awareness of the huge area the charity serves and the difficulty some people experience when accessing treatment.
Carolyn has been an ambassador for the charity since its establishment and helped celebrate the organisation’s third birthday last month. In those three years, Beatson Cancer Charity has raised more than £14 million, which has been used to improve and expand services provided to cancer patients and their families across the West Coast.
Carolyn’s mega marathon came off the back of previous running events in which she took part in to raise money for Friends of Beatson, the predecessor to the Beatson Cancer Charity. She has a long-running affiliation with the charity, as she explains: ‘I’ve lost both parents and an auntie to cancer which is why I have connections with the Beatson. The last of my marathons, which finished up at the Beatson centre, marked a year to the day that my mum passed away.’
To find out more details of Carolyn’s mega marathon, visit her JustGiving page: www.justgiving.co.uk/ beat15. Also, keep up to date on Facebook @beat15run.