Park life agrees with the ‘royal’ runners

COMMUNAL CHARITIES have profited from a run taking in some of the capital’s best known greenery.

Norwood, Jewish Care, Kisharon and Camp Simcha were among beneficiaries of Sunday’s Royal Parks Half-Marathon, whose route incorporated Hyde Park, Green Park, St James’s Park and Kensington Gardens. Norwood raised £15,000 from its team of 15 — Tristan Nagler, Samuel Keisner, Danielle Lester, Alexander Moussaieff, Candice Mendes da Costa, Zoe Burnstein, Gary Sacks, Felicity Young, Holly Stock, Victoria Farrar, Gary Behar, Simon Rosenblatt, Emmanuel Bodenstein, Anita Patel and Paula Lent.

Mr Rosenblatt said: “An amazing atmosphere with cheering crowds, blue skies and beautiful scenery helped push Gary [Behar] and I to the finish line in two hours 11 minutes. We hope our efforts raised awareness of what an amazing charity Norwood is and how important it is for us to help support its future.”

North London friends Adam Leviton and Saul Konviser, both 34, were among a Jewish Care contingent which raised more than £4,000. Mr Leviton said: “This was a great opportunity for me to show gratitude to the organisation which gave my wife Laura’s grandma, Ida Neymiller, an incredible amount of support.

“Ida was a Holocaust survivor, a fantastic person and a regular member at Jewish Care’s Redbridge Jewish Community Centre. She loved it there and she went on to live in Jewish Care’s Vi and John Rubens House in Ilford. The care and support she had was very important to all the family and the run was in her memory.”

Other runners were Samantha Mire, who worked in the charity’s fundraising team, Aryeh Marks and Simon Kirwilliam, whose grandmother is a resident at Vi and John Rubens House.

Staff from special needs charity Kisharon cheered on its runners — Ari Blum, Dr Elliot Benjamin, Dalia Davis; mother and daughter Danielle and Miranda Donne, Bernard Fromson, Jeremy Herman, Laura Kaplan, Melissa Manski, Alex Pollak and Ryan Johnston — who raised a combined £7,000.

Lee Bladon, Sophie Berkin, Hannah Goldstein, Shoshi and Benjamin Silverblatt, Sarah Manuel and Adam Cohen ran for Camp Simcha, bringing in £5,000.

Ms Goldstein is a “Big Sister” volunteer for the charity, helping seriously ill children and their families. She saw “the impact Camp Simcha has for families, really making a difference when they are trying to cope in the most unimaginably difficult circumstances. I want to help them keep doing that.” Clockwise from top: Kisharon’s Jeremy Herman and Elliot Benjamin; Camp Simcha’s Adam Cohen, Benjamin and Shoshi Silverblatt, Hannah Goldstein and Sarah Manuel; Norwood’s Gary Behar and Simon Rosenblatt and Jewish Care’s Adam Leviton and Saul Konviser with their medals