Alan beats the heat to raise over £3k for Alice House
Alan Robson, a Planning Engineer at Seymour Civil Engineering, battled through the hottest London Marathon on record, to raise over £3,000 for Alice House Hospice.
The 50-year-old dad of two took on the marathon challenge as part of Seymour’s 40th anniversary celebrations, and completed the route in a time of four hours and 35 minutes.
He said: “Originally I was hoping to complete the route in a faster time than I did, but with the extreme weather conditions I knew that if I was going to make it round I needed to go easy. It became less about the time and more about concentrating on getting to the finish line. This wasn’t my first marathon, I’ve ran six previously including the London Marathon back in 2015, but this was certainly the hardest I’ve ever completed because of the heat.”
Seymour Civil Engineering has a long standing corporate partnership with Alice House, sponsoring a number of the Hospice’s major annual events, as well as having a busy fundraising calendar throughout the year.
Alan continued: “This year was the first time I’d ever ran a race for a charity and that in itself gave me a huge boost. I wasn’t running for my own personal achievement, I was running for all the people who had sponsored me and those who would benefit from the money I’d raised. When Alice House first secured me my place, I was quite dubious about whether I could reach the £2,000 sponsorship target. However, when I aired my concern to the team at Seymour, the company made the incredibly generous donation of £1,000 to get me half way there. This really took the pressure off and got the sponsorship ball rolling.”
Alan went on to smash the £2,000 target, having raised £3,000 to date with money still coming in.
Alice House Hospice fundraiser, Greg Hildreth, said: Congratulations to Alan on such a great achievement and a fantastic fundraising total – all of this money will be used to provide care to Hospice patients. Both Seymour and Alan in his own right are long term supporters of Alice House and their ongoing kindness and dedication continues to make a real difference to the lives of our patients and their families.
When asked about his race day experience, Alan added: “The atmosphere on the day was electric. I can only compare it to a football match, there’s a constant wall of noise from the start line right through to the finish and the constant support from the crowd really does spur you on. Running down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace and the finish line is an emotional experience. The support from the crowd makes crossing the finish line quite euphoric, and coming away knowing I’ve made such a huge difference to a charity that’s very important to the people of Hartlepool is a very special feeling.”
Alan was also supported by Universal Coating, Retroflo, Robson Builders, CBL Cables, Keyline and Kannect.
There’s still time to donate too, visit Alan’s funding page by clicking here.