Marathon man gives £2,147 to area’s hungry

ADEDICATED charity fundraiser has handed over £2,000 he raised by running a marathon each for three different foodbanks.

Chris Furlong’s gruelling challenge was to complete three marathons in three months in three different countries to raise money for foodbanks and homelessness charities across the Rochdale borough.

He finished the 26.6 -mile races in Wrexham, Edinburgh and Manchester – raising a grand total of £2,147.

He split this amount between the Heywood Foodbank, the Middleton Foodbank and the Mayor’s homelessness fund.

Father-of-two Chris presented a cheque to Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham during a visit to the Rochdale Community Partnership Soup Kitchen – where he is also a volunteer – last Friday.

Humanitarian Chris says his main motivation for his philanthropy is a simple desire to give back to his local community.

He said: “I’ve been doing fundraising for a while – doing a whole host of things for different causes.

“In the last 12 or 13 years I’ve raised around £100,000 for charities, local schools and others.

“I’ve been doing marathons, fairs, fashion shows. I’ve just always done it, to give something back to the community.

“I want to thank all who sponsored me, especially Blue Rose Gifts for their financial sponsorship and providing my running and training T-shirts.”

Chris is a former Rochdale borough councillor, representing the North Middleton ward for four years between 2014 and 2018. He also works at foodbanks in the borough and is a school governor at his youngest daughter Caitlin’s school – Holy Family College.

The distribution firm worker says he has no plans for any further challenges for the moment, and will take a break from fundraising.

Chris says he has noticed how charities are reliant on donations now more than ever before. In his early days of fundraising Chris had to advertise around £8,000 in available funds in the newspaper, with few takers.

Whereas, more recently, he gave away £20,000 in matched donations within three months.

Chris says his passion for helping others was instilled in him from a very young age.

He said: “My father always said to me that it was important to help and give back to your community.” ●●Chris Furlong, with daughter Caitlin after completing the third leg of his marathon challenge earlier this year. He has now handed over the total raised for three different charities