Colleague honoured during virtual marathon
A SWANSEA nurse took on the virtual London Marathon yesterday to honour a friend and colleague.
Andrea Bradley, 51, a matron at Morriston Hospital in Swansea, completed the race alongside her friend Lyn Davies, 50, in Neath, Wales, despite never having run for more than 15 miles.
She was running in memory of her friend Jess who died five years ago with cancer, and a nurse she worked with for 26 years, Jen, who died this week with cancer.
Ms Bradley, who worked in a Covid ward during the first wave of the virus, said: “It has been a year of training and trying to work.
“Because of the first wave, I just went home to sleep and went back to work. “It’s been a very emotional year. “We did lose some colleagues and that was difficult for us because you lose colleagues who went to work to do the same thing you did.”
During the last mile of the race on Sunday, Ms Bradley was joined by Jess’s two daughters, aged 21 and 23.
“When you do the London Marathon you don’t see your family for hours, but my family were with me the whole way,” she said.
“They were coming alongside in cars, blowing hooters. In some respects I feel it was the best marathon to do because it was so encouraging and so lovely to have them with me.”
London Marathon finishers have said this year’s virtual event brought communities together even more than in previous races.
Runners included a new father running with his baby girl in tow, and a charity boss raising funds lost due to the pandemic said they had supporters join them on the way.
Some 45,000 people ran or walked the 40th London Marathon along their own 26.2-mile route around the UK, after the event originally planned for April 26 was postponed due to coronavirus.