Royal Parks Half
Sunday 13th October 2024
The Bob Willis Fund
Royal Parks Half
My dad, Andrew Sidders, was a keen runner. He started running in the 1970s long before it became a right of passage for a certain kind of middle-aged man going through a mid-life crisis.
I am very much not a runner and for the entirety of our lives' overlap, the source of the motivation that made him lace up his shoes and go running off into the hills was a total mystery to me.
Prostate cancer finally robbed dad of his favorite outlet, but only after he had already been through radiotherapy, chemo and various trials, out-running his terminal diagnosis for several implausible years. Towards the end of his life, when running was no longer an option, we spent a lot of time watching cricket together and it is time I still cherish.
It is four-years since he died and in that time I have lost 10-stone and to my shock more than anyone else's, I have finally taken up running. The knowledge that I will never get to run with dad, to share his favorite activity with him, is a huge source of regret. But I like to think he would have approved of my belated conversion.
And that's why I decided to run the Royal Parks Half Marathon, a sentence that a couple of years ago would have been unimaginable for me. And in particular to use it as a chance to raise money to fight prostate cancer for the Bob Willis fund. For me it is an opportunity to take that regret at never having run with dad and channel it into something positive, to raise money for an organization that represents a shared passion, named for one of English cricket's greats, and to fight a disease that claimed my dad, my grandad, Bob Willis and countless other men. I think about them every time I run and it is the thought of them that has got me this far. Your support in getting me to to the finish line is hugely appreciated.
£3,186.00
+£602.75 Gift Aid
raised of £1,000 target
by 74 supporters
