Postmaster raises cash to keep charity flying
A BANCYFELIN postmaster has raised £5,000 for the Wales Air Ambulance by taking on the one of the world’s toughest mountain races – and battling injury at the same time.
Father-of-two Dean Thomas set himself the challenge of competing in the Dragon’s Back Race, which saw him run from Conwy Castle to Cardiff Castle in just six days – a distance of 380km, or 1.5 marathons a day.
Dean, who also runs the outreach post offices in the villages of Llangain and Llansteffan, near Carmarthen said: “In the last few weeks leading up to the event more and more people were asking if I was doing it for a charity.
“With a week to go when the race was all systems go, and I was fit to go we decided to raise funds for Wales Air Ambulance. We chose the Wales Air Ambulance as it’s a locally based charity which was important to us, it’s a relevant cause to all as none of us know when we could need the service.”
While Dean concentrated on the huge task ahead, his wife Anthea, who also works at the post office and shop in Bancyfelin, and their two daughters, Ellie and Megan, focussed on the fundraising.
Dean initially hoped to raise £1,000 for the lifesaving charity, but quickly smashed that target.
He said: “Anthea and the girls did all of the fundraising really, I just did the running. We only started the week before the event and the response was incredible. It was just word of mouth from there really.
“We’re quite lucky in a way that we see a high volume of people within the shop and post offices.
“I think we expected to raise £1,000 due to us starting it so late, so we were blown away with people’s generosity and support for the charity.”
As Dean took on the Dragon’s Back race down the spine of Wales, he was hit with an injury on day five.
He said: “I got injured and I still had over 50 miles to go, every step was really painful and that pain doubled going downhill.
“I saw the race doctor on the last morning who told me then that the injury I had could be a stress fracture or could lead to one, so she taped my shins up and that’s all that could be done other than stopping and resting, but that wasn’t an option.”
Pupils from Ysgol Bancyfelin threw their support behind Dean and followed his progress each day. The children made daily video updates of his progress which they shared on social media and wished him luck throughout his gruelling challenge.