Sunday 26th April 2020 should have seen thousands of runners pounding the streets for the 40th London Marathon. Instead, a challenge with a difference was launched.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a catastrophic effect with the cancellation of thousands of events and the loss of billions in income through fundraising events. The Virgin Money London Marathon alone, which should have taken place on Sunday 26 April, is the world’s biggest one-day fundraising event, raising more than £66.4 million for thousands of charities in 2019.
Virgin Money came up with the idea of setting yourself a challenge around the numbers 2.6 or 26 to raise much needed funds for your favourite charity and hopefully have some fun at the same time. Lots of you got on board, raising a fantastic amount of money in the process!
Naomi Hillman
Namoi Hillman’s 2.6 challenge was to walk along a wobble beam 26 times in succession, and to donate £26 to GAIN. Naomi has CIDP and her balance is poor, so this was no mean feat. She sent us a video of her challenge, which we found truly inspirational. Well done, Naomi, and thank you for sharing your achievement!
Thank you, Team Speed! You raised £393.75 including Gift Aid!
Team Speed has completed our 2.6 Challenge! Mark and Sarah ran 26 flights of stairs which was just over a mile each. Harley’s 26 laps covered just under 5 miles running-walking. Jack’s 2.6 laps came to a quarter of a mile of running. We have all enjoyed ourselves and are very grateful to everyone who has been able to donate.
Olivia has raised £137.15 for GAIN
Olivia’s Story – I have CIDP (Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy) and walking provides important physiotherapy to help with my mobility.
I’ve been walking at least a mile a day every day since lockdown started (I did 14.5 miles during the twelve days of lockdown in March and have been out for my daily exercise every day in April so far).
I have been helped throughout my illness by GAIN, and I am under the Neurology team at STH which is supported by Neurocare, so I decided that for my 2.6 Challenge I will walk 2.6 miles on Sunday 26th April, which is significantly further than my usual daily exercise – contributions will be split 50/50 between the two charities.
If you’re looking to fundraise for GAIN, please click the link here to find out how: https://gaincharity.org.uk/get-involved/fundraising/
