Fitness trainer runs 62 miles and raises thousands for charity

Jim Gardner at No Fad Fitness (Image: Archant)

Jim Gardner, who runs No Fad Fitness classes, came in at 52nd place overall in the 62 mile trek and rasied ore than £2,750.

He said: “It was incredibly hard and I will be suffering for days but thanks to all of you a substantial sum will be going to a great cause.”

The run went from the Olympic Park in London to the University Sports Ground in Cambridge.

“There is a good reason for this madness,” he said.

“This year I will be 50 years old and for a couple of years I have been thinking about what I would do to mark the occasion, what I wanted was an adventure, something challenging, something where I faced a real prospect of failure.

“Just over a year ago I heard the news that an old Army buddy was seriously ill with pancreatic cancer, the doctors had given him just months to live. He was barely recognisable in his latest Facebook profile pic. He had lost so much weight, and so rapidly, that it really struck home just how serious things were.

“His name was Stephen “Bing” Crosby, and it really shocked me that an old friend, the same age as me, could be so close to death.”

He met up with Bing and his family in the Summer of 2015 which was when he made the decision to take on an ultra marathon and raise money to fight Pancreatic Cancer.

“This disease strikes without warning and it is all too often the case that by the time it is diagnosed it is already too late.

“Finding better ways to diagnose and creating awareness can really make a tangible difference and lives can be saved through early surgical intervention, families can be saved.

“Bing lost his fight on May 10 this year, he will be missed,” he said.