Simon Speller, Partner at Hillier Hopkins LLP, has raised in excess of £8,000 in sponsorship for the charity “Beating Bowel Cancer” by running the London Marathon on Sunday 13th April 2014.
“I am astounded and very grateful for all the generous donations received from all my family, friends, colleagues and clients”, says Simon. “The money will make such a difference to the charity and I’m absolutely thrilled to have achieved this”.
Simon decided to take up the challenge for his inspirational friend, Mrs Charley Kitley (pictured below after the race with Simon). Charley was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in February 2012 and it has since spread to her liver and lungs. She was told it was inoperable and had 6 months to live in November 2012. Fabulously due to the influence of a new drug, Regorafenib, her cancer has remained stable during the last 2 months.
Charley is currently promoting The Saatchi Bill, which has cross party support, and aims to change the law to encourage innovative thinking from the medical profession without the fear of legal recourse. It will help allow doctors to consider a new way to treat diseases, such as cancer, by providing patients with the opportunity to test out their ground breaking medical theories.
Simon had been suffering from plantar fasciitis since early February and this had caused havoc with his training regime. Following consultation with a specialist he was recommended complete rest in the run up to the marathon in the hope that the injury would not reoccur on the big day. Unfortunately from mile 3 onwards the pain returned to Simon’s foot making the challenge painful and even more difficult but Simon persevered and completed the route in 5 hours 32 minutes.
Simon has vowed to revisit the distance again next year injury free!
We would like to say a big thank you to those of you that have already supported Simon. For any of you that would like to congratulate Simon by making a donation to this worthwhile cause can click on his Just Giving page link below: