Our Fundraising Officer, Alex Rigby, has completed his ultra-marathon challenge and raised £20,000 for Centre 56 so far.
Starting off at 6am from Hunts Cross, Alex followed Merseyrail’s Northern Line out to Southport, before running across to Ormskirk and following the line back down to Kirkdale. Running through the finish line at 6:30pm, he actually covered 58 miles, 2 more miles than expected!
He was greeted at the finish line by a crowd of cheering supporters, including families that currently use our services. Alex said: “I’m feeling very tired and very sore, but it was worth it for the money and the profile of the charity.”
He was joined along the way by business representatives who took on a relay, passing a baton to each other at stations, as well as fellow members of Liverpool Running Club and runners from other groups, including Marsh Lane Harriers.
Early on Monday morning, he reached his fundraising target of £20,000, with donations still coming in and more still to be counted from bucket collections held on the day.
Waking up to 900+ messages the next morning, Alex said:
“I just want to say thank you to every single person who made yesterday a success. We had lots of amazing people involved – including people running alongside me who don’t usually run. We had numerous running and sports clubs, businesses, charities, all come together to support Centre 56.
“We’ve smashed the £20,000 fundraising target which is amazing, but the support and publicity for Centre 56 means more to me than anything. Thank you to everyone who supported me on what was probably the best day of my life.”
Paula Graves, Manager at Centre 56 said:
“On behalf of everyone at Centre 56, a massive thank you and well done to our Alex, every single person who took part in the relay today and all those who helped make the event the huge success it was.
We can’t begin to tell you the difference this is going to make to our little ones, their families and the charity as whole. Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts – you’re all amazing.”
To see more images and videos from the challenge, head to our Instagram or Facebook pages.
