A runner from Guernsey will join England Rugby coach Kevin Sinfield OBE as he takes on his fourth running challenge to raise money for the MND community.
Tristan Brown will run with Sinfield in Brighton on Wednesday when he undertakes day six of the challenge, which will see him running an ultra-marathon every day for seven days in seven cities around Great Britain and Ireland.
The opportunity came about as Ravenscroft, where Tristan is head of finance, has supported Sinfield’s challenges through the rugby stars friendship with Ravenscroft CEO Jon Ravenscroft.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to be part of Kevin’s incredible fundraising in support of his friend and former Leeds Rhinos’ team-mate Rob Burrows MBE. His challenges have captured people’s imagination, and he has already raised over £8 million for the MND community. When you see how much public support he had on his other three challenges, then it’s going to be a very special day,” said Tristan, who completed an ironman in Barcelona in September and is training for the 2024 London Marathon.
“Having recently watched the documentary with Kevin and Rob, it is clear how devastating a disease it is and how vital the money raised is to the charities who are supporting and caring for people affected by MND and investing in the research to bring us closer to effective treatment and a cure.”
The latest fundraiser will combine elements from Kevin’s three previous challenges and will see him and his team run an ultra-marathon every day for seven days in Leeds, Cardiff, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Dublin and Brighton before finishing in London on Thursday 7th December. Each run will be a marathon with an extra mile to signify the extra mile people can all go to help their friends in tough times. The extra mile event each day will see invited guests join for one mile. The aim is to complete each day’s run in under four hours.
The initial target is to raise £777,777 with the main beneficiaries being MND Association and Leeds Hospitals Charity’s appeal to build the Rob Burrow Centre for MND in Leeds.
Donations will also be made to My Name’5 Doddie Foundation, the Irish MND Association and the Darby Rimmer MND Foundation plus support for the 4ED campaign to support former Gloucester and Leicester Rugby Union player Ed Slater.
Kevin said “Physically this will be my toughest challenge as I have not been able to do the amount of training that I have done previously because of my commitments for the World Cup and we have set an ambitious time target to complete each ultra so people know that we will be pushing ourselves to the limit. I am looking forward to it and seeing all the support out on the streets once again. For the MND community, every second counts and we will be making the most of every step on this challenge to raise awareness, funds and support for that community.
“It would be impossible to do challenges like this without the generosity of sponsors like Ravenscroft and I’m incredibly grateful to them for continuing their support. It’s fantastic that Tristan can join us and strengthen that link between the challenge and Ravenscroft as a sponsor.”
