Fancy that – Belinda races to £15,000 total
SHE’S dressed as a sumo wrestler, a red crayon, a giant poppy, a Rubik’s Cube and Forrest Gump!
Art teacher Belinda Neild is certainly creative when it comes to wearing fancy dress costumes in running events.
Her eye-catching outfits have attracted lots of attention - and donations - with Belinda having raised more than £15,000 for St Ann’s Hospice over more than a decade of fundraising.
Her next party piece is a pencil outfit for the London marathon on October 2 when she attempts to beat her own Guinness World Record set in 2019.
Bizarrely, that was for the fastest female dressed as a ‘stationery item’ when she wore her crayon creation.
Students at Fred Longworth High School, Tyldesley, where she teaches art and design, admire her non-stop determination to raise funds for St Ann’s where her late mum Joyce Bolton attended day care in 2011.
Belinda said: “The students are inspired by my marathon challenges. “The sumo outfit was the funniest, most entertaining and hardest to wear.
“I try to think of something different each year.
“Training is hard work, especially with a family, teaching and marking GCSE art work, but I enjoy running.
“I only started after mum died and decided to put my grief into running.
“My coaches Jack Carney and Mike Race are unbelievable, training me hard to reach my goals.”
Belinda, a member at Salford Met Athletics Club, has completed nine marathons, including three on successive weekends, a feat which raised £5,500.
She now has her sights set on taking her fundraising total for the hospice to more than £20,000.
Husband Steve, who completed his first marathon last year, and daughter
Lucia Belle (15), who enjoys track running, are also members of the same club.
St Ann’s also treated Belinda’s late father-in-law Kevin Neild and auntie Sandra McStravick at their Little Hulton hospice.
When Belinda met Andy Burnham, Mayor of Manchester, at a recent St Ann’s
Hospice function she was quick to remind him he once judged a fancy dress competition at her school.
She also invited Andy to the opening of the new building at Fred Longworth High School.
To sponsor Belinda visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/belinda-neild6.