Memorial run for soldier

Two-year anniversary of Fife soldier’s death while running London Marathon marked by 5k fundraising event held in Pittencrieff Park, Dunfermline

The family of fallen soldier Captain David Seath will mark the two-year anniversary of his death with a poignant memorial run.

The annual event will take place at Pittencrieff Park in Dunfermline tomorrow to coincide with the London Marathon, where the 31-year-old collapsed and died.

Brother Gary told how the constant support received from the local community had buoyed the family’s spirits and restored his “faith in humanity”.

The 5k event also symbolises the 3.2 miles of the marathon which David sadly never completed in 2016.

Gary, founder of the Captain David Seath Memorial Fund, said: “We wanted to do something to commemorate David’s life on the same day as the London marathon ran.

“We chose to establish the 5k as a means to have a positive focus on the day and bring members of the local community together to commemorate David’s life but also to support his legacy.

“We were delighted and, quite frankly, overwhelmed last year with the sheer numbers from the local community and beyond who attended.

“We had over 250 attendees – it was quite something to see. “We raised more than £1,200 as well.” Money collected at the event will go to the Captain David Seath Memorial Fund which helps support army veterans and personnel living with physical and psychological trauma.

More than 250 people have been helped by the charity over the last two years after more than £280,000 was raised during various fundraising events.

Gary, 35, told how he was at the family home near Dunfermline when they received a phone call from the hospital in London telling them David had died.

He said: “As a family we tend to gather at the family home to catch up and it was no different to any other day.

“And that’s where we were when we got a phone call from the hospital.

“We were able to get down to London that night. We were incredibly thankful to the army because they supported us with regards to that.

“When a serviceman dies, you’re assigned a welfare officer and thankfully the welfare service ensured we were down there as soon as possible and looked after really well.

“The response from the military was fantastic. We had visits from the 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery commanding officer and within 24 hours we had about 40 messages of

support from David’s network of army friends.

“The army is well and truly a collective family and they look after each other.

“I think even two years on, I still find it difficult to put into words how much the support helped us all.

“It’s very difficult because you have that initial phase of grief but then you find positive focuses and you just basically commit yourself and dedicate yourself to those.

“It stays with you every day – I would describe it as a serialist nightmare in many ways.

“The memorial fund has been a huge, positive focus for all our family and David’s friends and we now have a series of annual events.

“We’ve managed to structure the events throughout the calendar so we always have something on the horizon to look forward to. We all have our own little personal journeys but we all come together for the memorial fund events.

“We’ve always been a very close knit family but now even the extended family are closer.

“It’s really fascinating as friendships that had kind of fallen by the wayside have been established and rekindled.

“It sometimes takes something horrific to happen for people to waken up and realise that life is very short and we need to spend time with each other and build memories.”

The Seath family will gather for the unveiling of a memorial stone at the Commando Memorial in Spean Bridge in the Highlands on Tuesday.

The memorial run will begin at 11am tomorrow and tickets to take part are £5.

Gary Seath, right, has praised the support his family received following the death of his brother David, above.

Andrea Gellan is running in memory of her brother-in-law Dr Malcolm Gellan.