Football fans to run again for Sir Bobby
FOOTBALL-MAD runners will once again look to score some cash and support a charity founded by one of the North East’s most beloved sporting sons.
The second Sir Bobby’s Football Run will take place this month in honour of former Newcastle United and England manager Sir Bobby Robson.
Before dying of cancer aged 76 in 2009, the football great launched the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation to tackle the illness.
The charity, launched in 2008, has raised over £16m to help find more effective ways to detect and treat cancer, working within the NHS and in partnership with other leading charities and organisations since its inception.
The inaugural Football Run took place during lockdown, raising thousands of pounds.
Runners from all over the UK pulled on their favourite football shirts and ran 10km, the same distance a top-flight footballer runs on average during a game.
This month, the second Football Run begins, with runners from as far afield as the USA and Australia, already signed up.
Free to enter, runners can do the 10km whenever and wherever they like. Alternatively, entrants can choose to run “half a match” and do 5km.
Jack Brennan, 31 and who lives in Boston, Massachusetts, will be running in his beloved Sunderland AFC shirt.
Originally from Langley Park, Durham, Jack previously worked for County Durham company Esh Group and moved to the USA in 2020 to join an international consultancy as a contracts consultant.
He now works on a project installing a new signalling system across the Boston commuter rail network.
Mr Brennan said: “I’ve always been a huge football fan and played locally for City of Durham FC before joining Langley Park Working Men’s Club when I was 16. In fact, we all met Sir Bobby when he visited the club around 2007.
“I’m still playing socially here in Boston and when I heard about Sir Bobby’s Football Run, I was more than happy to sign up and raise some money for a great cause, which is helping people back home facing cancer.”
Newcastle fan Jack Stanley emigrated to Brisbane, Australia, with wife Katy in 2018. The couple have since had a little “Aussie Geordie” daughter, Eleanor.
Mr Stanley, 35, is a mental health social worker from Prudhoe, Northumberland and continues his connection with the North East by contributing to a Newcastle United podcast, The Toon Under Podcast.
He has also previously raised money for the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation by running the Great North Run in 2015.
He has personal, family experience of the work funded by the Foundation and was keen to sign up for Sir Bobby’s Football Run.
Mr Stanley said: “Sir Bobby Robson is a name that transcends continents. The Foundation already has strong support from exiled Geordies in Australia and Sir Bobby’s Football Run is an amazing opportunity to raise some money and awareness 10,000 miles from home.
“I can’t wait to pull on my Newcastle top for the run this April! I’ll probably do my 10k in the city towards the end of the month when the weather cools down a bit.”
The first Sir Bobby’s Football Run had supporters aged from five to 93 taking part.
In West London, Hanwell Town FC striker, Gareth Chendlik, chose to run 10 Football Runs and there was even one Sir Bobby’s Football Row – 10km completed on a rowing machine.
Free to enter, Football Runners are asked to try and raise £50 in sponsorship, which will help the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation fund a range of cutting-edge cancer treatments and innovative support services that directly benefit patients across the North East and Cumbria and which play a significant role in the international fight against the disease.
For more information and to sign up, visit http://sirbobbyrobsonfoundation.org.uk/sir-bobbys-football-run/
Alternatively, contact the Newcastle Hospitals Charity office by calling 0191 213 7235 or emailing nuth.charity@nhs.net