West Chilt foursome complete charity run
Four West Chilington & Thakeham CC players have run 1,240km between them in March for charity.
Hugo Gillespie, Lyle Aichroth, Harriet Thornton and Ben Lucking, known as the Team Four Fundraising team, undertook the gruelling trial in aid of The Ruth Strauss Foundation - a charity launched by cricketer Sir Andrew Strauss to raise awareness of the need for more research in to nonsmoking lung cancers following the death of his wife Ruth in 2018.
The foursome each completed 31 consecutive days of 10k runs and a socially distanced crowd cheered them over the line as they completed their final run at West Chilt’s ground on March 31.
Thornton said: “I don’t think any of us realised how much of a commitment and challenge running 10km every day would be while balancing our studies.
“Within the first few days it dawned on us how big a challenge this was going to be and wondered if we had bitten off more than we could chew!
“We considered running to raise money for mental health as its very pertinent at the moment, however we decided the Ruth Strauss Foundation was more personal to us due to the fact that we have all experienced a loss to cancer.”
The quartet set up a GoFundMe page and set themselves a target of raising £2,500.
The campaign has smashed its goal, raising over £5,000 at the time of writing, and Thornton couldn’t be more thrilled.
She added: “From day one we were getting incredibly generous donations from friends and family.
“We imagined £2,500 would be a challenge but we wanted to aim high for such an amazing cause.
“We quickly realised that we were going to smash our original goal and we are so proud!
“There have been a few tough days, from pouring rain to injuries, but we have always picked each other up and been there for one another.”
The quartet would like to thank their friends and families, West Chiltington & Thakeham CC and The Ruth Strauss Foundation for their continuous support.
To donate please visit https://www.gofundme.com/ f/1240km4cancer