Local Resident to Run London Marathon this Weekend
April 17th, 2013
We were delighted to hear from local resident Tony Hardy recently who this coming weekend will once again be running the London Marathon in aid of the mental health charity MIND.
Having first liaised with Tony back in 2009 when he approached Bradley Stoke Matters to help him find out if anyone would like to join him in setting up a social book club locally ( a resounding YES with an overwhelming 65 responses to the article resulting in 5 groups being set up!), we met up with Tony back in Jan/Feb 2012 when he was planning to tackle the marathon for the first time, and in doing so raise funds and awareness for MIND.
Having himself been diagnosed with ‘depression’ a few years ago, Tony understands first hand the difficulties in dealing with such a diagnosis as well as the vital support that MIND offers, commenting One of the biggest problems is the lack of public awareness of the issues and the stigma still associated with mental illness. Hopefully by doing the London Marathon I can not only raise a bit of money but also help increase that public awareness.
Tony has in no way been put off running in London following the shocking events at the recent Boston marathon telling us “Boston was so awful and pointless but it has made me and all the other runners that I know even more determined to run on Sunday. We’ll all be wearing our black ribbons with pride and thinking of those who suffered over there.”
We wish Tony all the very best for his endeavours on Sunday. If you would like to help support Tony there are two ways you can help:
If you’d like a chance of winning a cash prize by guessing Tony’s finish time, he has set up a Guess2Give page here: http://login.guess2give.com/event/tony_hardy/1659
Or if you’d like to make a more “traditional” donation then he also has a sponsorship page here www.virginmoneygiving.com/TonyHardy
Alternatively if you’d just like to give moral support then Tony states that is absolutely fine and much appreciated too!
