A dedicated supporter of St Ann’s Hospice is taking on not one but both of the Great Manchester Run’s on Sunday 21st May – and dressed as a bumble bee!
Belinda has been raising money for St Ann’s Hospice over the last twelve years, originally in memory of her Mum and then for her Mum’s siblings too. Her Mum was a patient at the Little Hulton site before she died at home in 2011. Belinda’s father-in-law and aunt have died at the hospice since, with lasting connections being made between Belinda’s family and St Ann’s.
Belinda hit an incredible milestone last year after raising over £20,000 for the hospice and has already added to this by running the London Marathon earlier this year with her husband Stephen Neild.
The Great Manchester Run has two races, a 10k and a half-marathon, with Belinda hoping to cross the finish line of both of these races!
Belinda will also be running the 10k race with her husband Stephen and daughter Lucia, with all the family supporting St Ann’s Hospice.
Belinda has run over ten marathons many of which have been in costumes such as a Rubik’s cube, a Forrest Gump and a sumo wrestler, as well as completing a triple marathon challenge.
Running these races in a brand new costume, Belinda says: “Everyone calls me B so it makes sense that for the Great Manchester Run I would run dressed as the Manchester bee – I’m the Manchester Queen bee!”
Completing any running challenge is an amazing achievement in itself, but Belinda also got two Guinness World Records for running a marathon in the fastest time dressed as an item of stationery – a red crayon first then as a pencil!
“My family and I have never stopped fundraising since 2011, I never expected we’d still be raising so much money but everyone around us knows how important St Ann’s Hospice is to our family.
“From fundraising myself and my husband did for the London Marathon we have raised £5200. We received an amazing donation of £2600 from Electricity North West and £540 from the White Lion pub in Swinton.
“I’d love to reach £5500 through money raised for this race, so please donate if you can it would mean so much to me, my family and those at St Ann’s Hospice.”
Lucy Leeming, Fundraising Manager at St Ann’s Hospice, says: “We are so grateful that Belinda has raised such an amazing amount of money for us over the last twelve years.
“It means so much to us that supporters like Belinda dedicate so much of their time to supporting us and raising awareness of our services. We are excited to see Belinda cross both finish lines at the Great Manchester Run – she’s a real superstar!”
St Ann’s Hospice provide important care and services to patients across Greater Manchester who have life-limiting illnesses, and also support their family and friends in their time of need.
Fundraisers like Belinda are the reason the hospice is able to provide the excellent care they can to so many people.
You can donate to Belinda and support the services St Ann’s Hospice provides to patients and their loved ones here.
