Lorraine writes:
“Each year we receive lots of offers from friends of the RGF that wish to run the London Marathon on our behalf. What few folks realise is that London Marathon places were mostly sold off years ago. They are all bonded to older charities; we as a new charity cannot even apply to go on a waiting list for unwanted places. Our only hope is that people apply through the public ballot and get lucky. So in 2015 we were thrilled when three gentleman approached us wanting to wear the distinctive RGF red running vest.
“Ray Bugg, Bank Manager of Handlesbanken, Chelmsford (and Bank Manager for the RGF), Sean Moriarty, friend of our family, and Dave Deason, Dad of an RGF Grantee, all got their running shoes on, and on Sunday 26th April 2015, Pip and I spent the day in London cheering them on. We managed to see two out of three of them, which isn’t bad bearing in mind the crowds, but all three men finished in good time and good spirits.
“We didn’t know at the time that we would meet Dave later in the year when he literally jumped out of a van late one evening during our John O’Groats to Land’s End bike ride. Imagine day 9 of 16 on your bike, you are ‘pooped’ and you still have 15 miles to go. A van approaches you, the window is wound down and the driver asks, “Are you Lorraine George?” Many thoughts flashed through my head…. but I simply replied “yes”. “Don’t stop!” came the instruction, as the van came to a halt, a bike was flung out of the back, and a lovely man leapt upon it and came and caught me up. “Keep peddling” he said, “you can do it – tell your legs they are not really tired – that’s what I do when I’m running a marathon.” Who was he trying to convince? My legs were in pieces!! Turned out it was Dave Deason, dad of Emily Deason, one of our RGF Grantees. Dave lived in the area and had come to help us finish a gruelling day. I hope he realises how amazing he was, as that day was, for me, the toughest of the ride. I really hope we meet again and can manage the conversations I so wanted to have with him, but didn’t have enough breath for!”
